Gigi Zaghloul

Although born in North Carolina, Genevieve didn’t get the chance to really explore it as she moved to Fairfield California, at age three, where she currently resides.
Due to her mom being a teacher, Genevieve’s childhood was filled with fun and creativity. She fondly remembers weekly trips to the library. As a kid, Genevieve was very shy and soft spoken. The fear of rejection and being wrong paralyzed her for most of her childhood. So, she often turned to books as an escape. Books allowed Genevieve an alternate world to live in and she often got inspired from many characters. This helped her realize her true worth and she realized that nobody is perfect. But it still wasn’t until May of 2014 that she really began growing into her skin.
That May was the beginning of her association with Salvation Army Kroc Center. She began volunteering in the marketing department, assisting their lead graphic designer, Eloy Mendiola. From there, she took a lifeguarding certification course, earning her first aid, AED, and CPR certificates. After three interviews she got a job at the Kroc Center as a lifeguard and swim instructor. By then she had met many new faces at the Kroc Center and everyone warmly welcomed her to the team. It was at her orientation that Genevieve heard about the Kroc Youth Business Program. When she was younger, she had many ideas of what her future would look like. She planned to be an astronaut, a marine biologist, a dietician, but her most recent dream was to go into business. So of course she applied to be in the Business Program. Genevieve and her mom had always talked about owning a bookstore. Therefore, Genevieve took that inspiration and wrote about it in her application for the business program, landing her a spot as one of the ten.
As Genevieve took on so many new responsibilities, volunteering, working, and learning, she realized that she could do so many things she never would have even imagined. Gaining self confidence, Genevieve entered her senior year at a local high school where she acquired even more responsibilities. She became the CEO in her Virtual Enterprise class and captain of the girls water polo team, which she had played all four years, while still working and participating in the Kroc Business Program.
Responsibility formed the young woman Genevieve is today. She doesn’t know exactly what the future holds, but she aspires to go to CSU Sacramento next year, entering the honors program there, majoring in either marketing business or business administration. She hopes to spread the importance of literature in her community to kids and teens to help others find their own voices, just like she did. She plans to do this by starting a “Take a Book, Leave a Book” library mailbox and begin youth book clubs at the Kroc Center. As Genevieve enters adulthood, she dreams of helping others in every way imaginable with literature.