Join us as we celebrate the accomplishments of our 2021 class of candidates by announcing our winner and fundraising total!

Join us for the start of fundraising for Students of the Year Pittsburgh!

We are proud to announce Ben Hughes is the 2020 Student of the Year winner for St. Louis! Ben is a 10 year leukemia survivor and student at Marquette High School. Ben and his team worked extremely hard throughout the campaign. Ben and his team were able to raise over $50,000 for the mission. His efforts gave him the opportunity to link his team name to an LLS research portfolio. They chose the LLS Children's Initiative in honor of Ben's personal battle with pediatric cancer.

Event Time TBD- More information to follow soon

Event time TBD- More information to follow soon

Let's celebrate! Join us for our 2021 Students of the Year Grand FInale Celebration. Our candidates and their teams have spent the past several months preparing for this 7-week campaign and have worked diligently to fundraise in support of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's mission. 

*Please check back for updates as the venue selection and format may change due to the ongoing changes brought on by COVID-19. Stay updated on how LLS is responding to the coronavirus by clicking here. 

Join us as we kickoff our Students of the Year 7-week fundraising campaign. Our students have worked hard to prepare for this day and deserve to be recognized as our elite 2021 Students of the Year candidate class.

Location is yet to be determined.

And the winner of the 2020 Student of the Year is... Marleigh Hayes!  Congratulations to the soon to be senior at The New School in Fayetteville.  Marleigh ran as a candidate to advocate for blood cancer patients and their families who need the most help through their trials.  A special note of appreciation goes to her Gold Sponsor, Simmons Foods, who helped her secure the win.  We appreciate the work of Marleigh and her Kiss It, Cancer! team who worked hard mailing hundreds of letters, gathering auction items and sending emails to rally support for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.  By raising $29,818 during the pandemic, they showed that beating cancer is definitely in their blood!

A shout out also goes to the Northwest Arkansas Student of the Year Runner Up, Team Open Hearts, led by Rachael Thumma, Bilal Raza and Dheeksha Krishnan.  This trio of candidates from Bentonville High School raised $22,007.50!! They also were presented with the Relentless Award for their tireless efforts in fundraising to find a cure for cancer.    

The staff of LLS appreciates all 11 candidate teams who participated in the 2020 campaign and hope to see them continue to be the philanthropic leaders of their generation.

Santa Ana, California, June 7, 2020 - 19 local high school philanthropists collectively raised $452,609 in the 4th Annual 2020 Students of the Year OCIE Campaign.

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) Orange County Inland Empire Chapter hosted their 4th Annual OCIE Students of the Year Campaign Grand Finale Celebration Virtually this year. The evening included an inspiring program, celebrating local high school philanthropists. 

Kayla Hayashi, Jacqie Gordon, & Will Stauffer of Team Six Lives Per Hour (6LPH), were recognized as the 2020 OCIE Students of the Year.

The runner up was Team Conquer Cancer, led by Aiden Brutman, Kevin Forbath, & Trent Liolios. The Citizenship Awards were presented to Juleen Erives of team Mission CANcer-vive for Mission, Ava Jansen and Ceci Warren of team More Hopeful Hearts, for Community Involvement, and Sanya Dhama of team Connect & Cure, for Innovation. Individual results will be posted once all national Student of the Year Campaigns are complete.

The evening’s festivities were hosted by long time LLS supporter, Mike Shumard.

Mission speakers at the event included:

• 2020 Students of the Year Honored Hero Samantha Diaz, a 17 year old Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia survivor, shared her story and congratulated the 2020 candidates on their efforts to continue raising funds that would benefit both research and patient services for cancer patients.

• Jack Witherspoon, a 20 year old three-time Leukemia survivor, chef, and author, presented our 2020 Citizenship Awards.

ABOUT STUDENTS OF THE YEAR

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's (LLS) Students of the Year is an exciting leadership development and philanthropy program in which high school students participate in a fundraising competition to benefit LLS. Every dollar raised counts as one vote. The candidates/teams who raise the most money at the end of the 7-week competition earn the title Student(s) of the Year. For motivated high school students, this program ensures they stand out among their peers when engaging with colleges and/or future employers. Through guidance and mentoring from experienced professionals at LLS they will make a real impact in the fight against blood cancers.

Apply or Nominate a High School Student for our 2021 Students of the Year class at https://studentsoftheyear.org/get-involved.

ABOUT THE LEUKEMIA & LYMPHOMA SOCIETY

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) is the largest voluntary health organization dedicated to funding research, finding cures and ensuring access to treatments for blood cancer patients. Since 1949, LLS has been on the forefront of blood cancer advances such as chemotherapies and stem cell transplantation leading the way to the targeted therapies and immunotherapies that are saving thousands of lives today. LLS is changing the landscape of cancer with more than 300 active research projects that explore different avenues of new and adventurous research; ones with promise and ones that will save lives not someday, but today.