Fredericksburg Student Enjoys Making Community Better: Future Leaders

FREDERICKSBURG, VA — Alia Durrani of Fredericksburg spends a lot of her time helping others. An 11th grader at James Monroe High School, she says it's important for people her age to do the same.

“With the society we live in today, it's really important to help others," Durrani said. "I think that it will not just better us as a person, but better our community. We are the future of the world, and we are the future leaders, and I believe that it's important to start now so we are prepared for the future.”

Durrani is involved in various school organizations, including being a DECA officer, UNICEF officer, and a member of the Principal's Advisory Committee. Since her freshman year in high school, she has also been working on a project to collect books for an educational initiative in Afghanistan.

“I'm a big advocate for change, and I love seeing a difference in my community and just helping people in general,” she said.

As part of its 2025 Future Leaders initiative, Patch is celebrating the contributions that young people like Durrani are making to their schools and the greater Fredericksburg community.

How did the book collection project come about?

“It was initially a project of mine that I was going to do by myself, but I thought since we have a UNICEF Club, I thought we had more resources with them. I could do a collaboration with them and get more recognition throughout the school about this issue as well, and get the students at our school involved to donate books, just for more involvement in our schools.”

How did you get involved with the UNICEF Club?

“Initially, one of my friends had the idea of starting one, and she's also involved with the school. She came up to me and said, ‘I'm starting this club.’ And I was like,’ Oh, this is something that I really love, and I want to be part of it’. And we just started working together on it.”

What type of books are you collecting?

“We're collecting any sort of book. It can be just like story books, educational books, textbooks, anything that people can donate, K-12, even college level as well.”

Can people outside of school donate books?

“We're trying to work on that right now. We might make a post or go through neighborhoods and make events where books can be donated. I want to expand this, not just inside of school, but outside as well.”

What do you do in DECA?

“I'm an officer. I'm the vice president of my school. I've been involved with it since my freshman year of high school. I love business, and that's what I want to pursue in my career outside of high school, so it's really just a great way for me to be involved with business, and it's just a competitive club that I'm involved in.”

People may have heard of DECA and may even know that it’s a business club, but what type of things does it do?

“It's an organization that prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs in categories such as marketing, finance, hospitality. We have practice exams and role plays to compete in, and based on your scores that you get during your role plays, that's how they pick the winners in the district level, state and then international.”

How did you end up on the principal’s advisory committee?

“At the start of the year, our principal had changed the bathroom rules, where we weren't allowed to leave certain classes to use the restroom because of the amount of students being out in the halls and skipping. But I thought that this wasn't the right way to implement a type of change, because students may have emergencies and personal reasons why they might have to use the restroom.

“I reached out to all of the staff and the principal. I emailed them about some new changes that we could make, and how this isn't just. Principal Marcus Petty had reached back out to me, appreciating my concern about this issue, and he wanted to start a Principal's Advisory Committee, and he thought of me to start this council with."

You say that you're thinking about a career in business. What inspired you to pursue that?

“My dad is my biggest inspiration. He has a construction company and initially my job plans were to become a doctor, but once I saw how interesting and fun businesses and marketing is, I really wanted to major in it. I love connecting with people and just working with people in general. Marketing is really what I love to do, and that's what my goals and plans are to do in college, work in real estate, marketing and business.”

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