Groton’s Cargian named county’s Distinguished Youth

The Tompkins County Legislature has been selecting its Tompkins County Distinguished Youth Award recipients on a monthly basis for the past two decades. According to tompkinscountyny.gov, “awardees shall be recognized for a selfless contribution or service worthy of note to the benefit of the County community.”

In addition to the Legislature, the award is made possible by supporting sponsors Bangs Ambulance, Specialty Trophies and Awards of Dryden, Purity Ice Cream and the Cayuga Radio Group.

Samantha Cargian, a senior at Groton High School and student in the Automotive Technology program at the TST BOCES Career and Technical Education (CTE) Center, was delighted to be selected as the January 2021 recipient of this distinguished award.

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, in a small, but no less meaningful, ceremony at the Cayuga Radio Group building, Cargian received her award, presented by Groton’s representative to the Tompkins County Legislature, Glenn Morey.

Also present were CTE Center Dean of Students Jeffrey Podolak, members of the Cayuga Radio Group and Cargian’s parents, Jeffrey (Jeff) and Robin Cargian.

Samantha’s parents are known by many in Groton. Jeff is employed by Goodsell Services of Groton, and Robin is the deputy town clerk for the town of Groton.

Samantha (Sam), who serves as president of the National Technical Honor Society (NTHS) and co-treasurer for the local Skills USA chapter at the CTE Center, was nominated for the award by her NTHS adviser, Heather Cooper.

A segment of Sam’s nomination letter from Cooper reads as follows: “Samantha is a leader in the classroom and outside it. Sam is an excellent friend and citizen in her Groton community. Sam always looks to help others first and helps her neighbors whenever someone is in need and has participated in a community/school initiative to clean up the walking trails in Groton.

“Sam has also volunteered her time for Groton Olde Home Days. Overall, Samantha is an outstanding human being. She is hardworking; she has the integrity of Nelson Mandela and is a fantastic leader/supporter of her peers. She is trustworthy, responsible, and a positive role model.”

Currently, Sam is busy painting a mural on one of the main hallway walls inside Groton High School. The theme for the mural is based around Sam’s own inspirational quote, “Be the hand that helps.”

“I’m halfway done,” Sam said. “The environment in school is so sad right now because of COVID. There’s no new artwork in the halls and no activities going on, so there aren’t even any posters to advertise things like there usually would be. That’s what inspired me to want to create something positive for everyone.”

In addition to painting, Sam’s other passion is photography. Her mom is an avid photographer, and Sam said she “really got into it” when she started high school.

“Right now, I would normally be taking photos for school sports,” Sam said. “But since no spectators are allowed, I can’t even do that.”

Sam is proud of the many photos in the Groton yearbooks that she has taken at sports events and other school activities and hopes to utilize her skills in some way as she figures out her future career, which will also hopefully involve her training in auto technology.

When she attended a CTE open house at TST BOCES in the fall of 2018, Sam went to check out the welding program. She said she liked the creative aspect of it, to “put things together and make something.”

Growing up, Cargian had a cousin, Julie Milligan, who was a TST Auto Tech graduate, whom she “really looked up to” and spent a lot of time with, especially around cars. In February 2019, Milligan passed away, impacting Cargian to change course and take the Auto Tech program herself.

In February 2020, Sam participated in the Area 2 SkillsUSA regional competition at SUNY Morrisville, earning sixth place in Auto Service Technology. She was devastated when her opportunity to compete at the state level that April was canceled due to the pandemic, but she looked forward, at that time, to competing again in 2021.

Sam already knows the SkillsUSA competition will not take place this year and is saddened by it.

When asked how she felt about earning the Tompkins County Distinguished Youth Award, Sam’s candid and honest answer was that she has “mixed emotions.”

“It’s cool to be congratulated, but this year kind of sucks,” Sam said. “This is not normal at all.”

While Sam is grateful that the remote learning in her auto tech program earlier in 2020 was somewhat short lived — and that she has been able to take her classes in person for most of the rest of last and this year — she explained that it is still difficult.

“Learning to fix a car from 6 feet away is kind of hard,” she said.

Last year at this time, Sam had hoped to attend the Universal Technical Institute in Pennsylvania after graduation.

“Now, I’m probably going to take a gap year,” Sam said. “My next original plan was to work part in photography and part working in the field of shooting commercials for cars, but COVID has everything up in the air.”

I have no doubt that whatever the future holds for Samantha, her skills, talents and honest approach to life will help her to meet it head-on and rise above whatever challenges she faces.

Groton on the Inside appears weekly. Submit news ideas to Linda Competillo, lmc10@cornell.edu or 607-227-4922.

In brief:

TST/GHS Students of the Month

The following Groton students were recognized as outstanding students of the month for January at the TST BOCES CTE Center: Cameron Brehm, Outdoor Recreation Services, and Taylor Moffitt, Cosmetology.

These students are chosen based on qualities such as character, leadership, citizenship, work ethic and attendance and should be compassionate, honest, trustworthy, responsible and a positive role model.

Now more than ever, TST BOCES believes it is important to recognize student success. These students have been resilient in the face of uncertainty, and the CTE staff applauds their efforts to remain focused and determined during this unusual school year.

Master composter classes

Become a Tompkins County master composter to help residents in Groton and elsewhere in the county successfully compost. Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County is looking for some help to reactivate its Compost Learning Community site at the Groton Community Gardens.

Training will be held Thursday evenings from 6 to 8 p.m. March 4 through May 13. The first half of training will be conducted virtually over Zoom, while the second half will be a mix of in person and virtual.

For more information, including the volunteer job description, instructions for applying and a fillable PDF application form, visit ccetompkins.org/mc. To be considered for the 2021 training class, please apply by 11:59 p.m. Friday, Feb. 19. Contact Adam Michaelides at acm1@cornell.edu or 607-272-2292 with any questions.

GPL book clubs

The Groton Public Library Book Club will meet at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 18. This month’s book is “A Secret Gift” by Ted Gup. The Awaken Reading Club will meet at 7 p.m. Feb. 24. The book is “Black Elk Speaks” by John G. Neihardt.
Contact the library, director@grotonpubliclibrary.org, for either Zoom link and copies of the books.