Like many students at Lambert, senior Ehi Oche has been working towards self-improvement and growth consistently throughout her four years at Lambert. To fully work on that goal, she followed a conventional path, taking rigorous courses and joining clubs. Her journey differed, however, when she decided to focus on bettering herself through helping her community. Oche has worked tirelessly on her community service initiatives at Lambert through clubs such as Black Student Union (BSU) and Lambert Beta, which she is now the president of.
Oche has been involved with Beta since elementary school, and has fallen in love with the opportunities it can provide to do service in many different forms. As president, Oche has aimed to help members and officers to explore different ways to get involved with the community through Beta.
“We’re just like a blanket community service club and we’re really versatile,” Oche explained. “We could collect donations of food items or blankets and donate them to bigger organizations, or we could volunteer our time at Meals By Grace.”
Oche especially loves how community service can be for anyone and be applied to any niche and passions. As Beta president she wants students at Lambert to recognize how much of a difference community service could make on not only your life but so many others, something that drew her to it in the first place.
“I kind of wanted to make community service a big part of what I did outside of school, like AP classes and dual enrollment and academics, that is all fine but it’s truly about what you do outside of the classroom,” Oche emphasized. “Outside of the classroom, I wanted to focus on not just myself because a lot of school became about me.”
Focusing on extracurricular activities along with handling the pressure from the school’s competitive academic culture can sound almost impossible, but for Oche, she was able to balance both and still pursue goals in both areas of her life mainly through remembering to stay true to herself.
“If we’re focused on a bettering yourself method, what’s important is finding out what makes you a person and not just what makes you a student,” Oche noted.
At Lambert, Oche’s work for BSU and Beta has been inspiring, as she aims to spread her passion for community service to underclassmen and especially fellow Beta officers. A way she’s tried to do that is through having a Beta officer bonding through volunteering at Meals By Grace before the school year started, an event she hopes will become a tradition. Looking back as a senior about to graduate, Oche has found that the people of the school were truly what made her experience memorable.
“Looking back on it now, I met so many amazing people, not just like peers and friends but also teachers and adults,” Oche said. “And also the friends that I’ve made, the people that I’ve met, the kind of connections that I’ve made through labor and because I went here are ones that I know I’m going to have with me for the rest of my life.”
Whether it be helping her build connections or helping her find her place at the school, community service has impacted Oche and the person she is immensely, making her the inspiring Longhorn she is today. As Oche looks towards graduation and taking steps forward as an adult, she carries these values with her, staying true to what truly matters in the busy world today.
