Who Is Malena Earls

When Malena was in 5^th grade at Steubing Ranch Elementary School, she won a “writing” contest sponsored by a “law firm” and was a featured speaker at the “naturalization ceremony,” where 100’s of new citizens were taking their oath.

The topic was, “My Experience with Immigration in America.” It was an unforgettable experience watching her speak.

Also when Malena was in 6^th grade, at Bradley Middle School, her former dual language teacher at Steubing Ranch asked if she could tutor 3rd grade students after school because those students were new to our Country and did not speak any English. They were struggling with their school work. She tutored elementary school students after school until the semester ended.

For over 3 years Malena volunteered and served as an “Altar Server” assisting the Priest at St. Mark’s Catholic Church for Sunday morning mass.

Also, when Malena was at Bradley Middle School, she and a group of her friends did a variety of volunteer activities including designing and making unique Halloween candy bags and selling them to kids and their parents, with the proceeds going to Rockport, Texas. Rockport was damaged by Hurricane Harvey a week earlier.

Corona Virus

In 2020, Malena began her sophomore year at MacArthur High School. In March of 2020, Malena was scheduled to fly to Europe (Austria and Germany) for 10 days with her high school orchestra class, but only a few days before departure, Austria and Germany closed their borders because of the Corona Virus outbreak.

Her school life changed during the corona virus. Malena had to stay at home, all the classes were online. Internet connections failed daily. For the first time Malena started to struggle with her classwork. Everyone was frustrated. Malena had to work overtime during sophomore and junior school years to maintain her good grades. I often awoke in the middle of the night and discovered her awake doing homework.  

Also, in Malena’s junior year at MacArthur High School, she became the “Editor” of the school newspaper and after school she was the primary school photographer.  

During Malena’s senior year, almost every week, she volunteered and spent time after school editing the school year book and she still continued doing photography for school events.

Malena attended Vacation Bible School at St Mark’s Catholic Church for many years, and when she became a teenager, she volunteered as a group leader at church teaching 7 year olds for vacation bible school activities for a couple years.

Now our baby is approaching her 18^th birthday in May and will graduate from high school on her Mother’s (Magda) birthday on May 29, 2023.