5 Young Women: School board member Aida Richardson urges fellow students to 'go for it'
At the start of the fall semester at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, Tallahassee will have at least one representative beginning her college career: Aida Richardson, a current Leon High School senior and TCC student, and one of Tallahassee’s 5 Young Women to Watch.
When she received news of earning a congressional appointment to both the U.S. Naval Academy and the U.S. Air Force Academy, she knew she wanted to join her sister and continue their family legacy of military service.
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“As a little sibling you don’t want to cling to an older sibling, but when I attended a summer camp there I really liked it,” she explains. When they invited her back, she knew it was right. She hasn’t decided quite yet, but will study either aerospace or mechanical engineering. “You can go to space if you’re in aerospace,” she says.
And she just might. Fascinated by legos and robotics as a child, she recalls summer breaks at the Challenger Learning Center and SciGirl Summer Camp at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory.
“In my seventh grade STEM class we had to research potential careers, and I discovered how many opportunities there are in engineering,” she explains. “Then I took an Astronomy class and was like, ‘woah, I need to find out how to combine these.’”
Aida is active at Leon High School as a member of the National Honor Society, as well as the honor societies for math, science, English.
She is in the Student Government Association, and Anchor Club. She is also a student athlete on the varsity soccer team, and previously competed on the track team. She is a proud member of Jack and Jill Tallahassee Chapter, National Achievers Society, and Pearls of Perfection in Tallahassee.
She is humble when acknowledging the numerous awards she has received for her academic and athletic achievements, including being selected to serve as the 2022-2023 Student Board Member on the Leon County School Board, giving over 30,000 Leon county students a voice at the school board table.
Her efforts have been focused on school safety and ensuring that students have a means of reporting issues, including supporting students who may be experiencing mental health issues.
“I feel like I am learning something new every day,” she says. “A lot of students don’t even know about the school board, so it is very rewarding to know that I can represent them and collaborate with others for the betterment of all schools.”
Following in the footsteps of her family, Aida makes time to give back to her community by volunteering with multiple nonprofits and organizations. She received the Humanitarian Award from the Martin Luther King Foundation in 2021-2022, and was recently acknowledged as an Unsung Hero by Destiny Church in Tallahassee.
She is inspired by her mother, Leon County Judge Nina Ashenafi-Richardson, who immigrated to the United States from Ethiopia before becoming the first Ethiopian-American judge in the United States. “She is such a strong and amazing woman that everyone loves, and I really look up to her.”
“I used to be very quiet,” she says of her early forays into activism. “But I realized that high school only lasts four years. One of my favorite phrases is YOLO - you only live once.” She wisely explains that rejection is just redirection, and encourages her peers to not give up too easily if they have their eyes set on a goal. “If you want to experience something or make a change you have to just go for it!”
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: 5 Young Women: Leon senior Aida Richardson headed for Naval Academy
