The Hispanic Heritage Foundation (HHF) will host the 18th Annual National Youth Awards Ceremony on Thursday, January 26, 2017.
HHF is honored to present the Media & Entertainment recipient, Jonathan Salama. Jonathan serves as a role model to others, and is a true example of hard work. This is Jonathan’s story.
Jonathan embodies the definition of a well-rounded student. He is proud of his Argentine heritage, and loves to spend time with his family sipping mate. Six years ago, he started making educational music videos for children and uploaded them to YouTube, which quickly became successful and garnered millions of views worldwide.
Soon, he realized that he could use his videos to help children around the world with language development, so he began adding subtitles in Spanish and English. His videos are used by a company that specializes in ESL. He has also created a campaign to close the 30 million word gap, which affects low income families. Not only did he create a video for the campaign, but he personally visits playgrounds and pediatric clinics to engage parents.
A favorite quote of Jonathan’s is by Mitch Albom, from the book The Five People You Meet in Heaven, “It is not until much later, as the skin sags and the heart weakens, that children understand; their stories, and all their accomplishment, sit atop the stories of their mothers and fathers, stones upon stones, beneath the waters of their lives.” During his free time, Jonathan enjoys playing music at home with his brothers, hiking, and taking pictures of wildlife.
Jonathan is also the host of his school’s cable television talk show, he is part of the Broadcast Production Club, plays saxophone, piano and guitar. He is also a member of the Tri-M Music Honor Society and a member of both the Marching and Concert Bands.
He is also in the varsity soccer and tennis teams, participates in the science Olympiad, and the Math Team. Jonathan was a semifinalist for the National Merit Scholarship Program, received the National Hispanic Recognition Award, the Yale Book Award for Excellence in English and the Silver Prize for the National Spanish Exam twice. With an impressive 3.92 GPA, he plans to major in Humanities with a minor in physics at Princeton University, Yale University or Harvard College.
Jonathan is well on his way to becoming a latino leader, and a lifetime of future achievements!
If you would like to attend our National Youth Awards, please RSVP at www.rsvpya.com.
