Prep Talk
Michael Doliszny (’19) Earns Prestigious Congressional Award Gold Medal
Posted April 4th, 2017
Michael Doliszny (’19), a St. Augustine Preparatory Merit and Presidential Scholar, has earned the prestigious Congressional Award Gold Medal.
Michael will be honored and awarded his Gold Medal at a US Congressional ceremony on Wednesday, June 21st in Washington D.C.
As a Congressional Gold Medalist, Michael is only one of 275 students nationwide to receive this highest honor, and only one of 21 individuals in the State of New Jersey to earn the Gold Medal Award.
The Congressional Award is the United States Congress’ award for young Americans. It is non-partisan, voluntary, and non-competitive. The program is open to all young people ages 14 to 23. Participants earn Bronze, Silver, and Gold Certificates and Bronze, Silver, and Gold Medals. Each level involves setting goals in four program areas; Voluntary Public Service, Personal Development, Physical Fitness, and Expedition/Exploration.
Under the direction of the City of Ocean City’s Community Service Department, Michael successfully completed 570 volunteer community service hours over the past 3 years. He completed 1,062 hours associated with two personal development goals including intensive SAT Prep and self-taught computer coding.
Through his own initiative, Michael began a pursuit of self-taught computer coding which resulted in his qualifying and completing a computer coding class through IDTech at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) this past summer. As a member of his local Lacrosse Team and St Augustine’s Freshman Crew Team last year, Michael completed 439 hours in physical fitness goals.
His international exploration initiative was associated with his US Student Ambassadorship in the People to People Program where he spent 3 weeks exploring the cultures and traditions of France, Austria and Italy. As a result of his cumulative achievements, Michael has previously been awarded Bronze, Silver and Gold Certificates, as well as the Congressional Bronze and Silver Medals.
Michael will have the honor of representing St Augustine’s Prep High School and the 2nd Congressional District of the State of New Jersey when he receives his Congressional Award Gold Medal in June.