kayla sanseverino

Hi! I'm Kayla Sanseverino and I'm from Parkland, Florida. My interests have changed greatly during my life. When I was younger I loved to sing and act and my dream was to attend Julliard and be on Broadway. That was until sixth grade, when I began running with my mom. At first, it was difficult for me to even run for five minutes straight and I could never keep up with her. Over time, I developed my speed and eventually my mom could not keep up with me. My freshman year of high school, long after my dream of being a star on Broadway had faded away, I joined the cross-country team. That year I went from a 27 minute 5k to a 22 minute 5k, and fast forward to my senior year I was running a 20 minute 5k. I traveled to the state competition every year with my team and we became family to each other. We went through the unimaginable together when there was a mass shooting at my school that took the life of one of our coaches. The next year we worked tirelessly for months to plan a 5k in honor of him called the “Run 4 Beigel 5K.” Together, we drew in over 600 participants and raised $14,000 for the Scott J. Beigel Memorial fund which sent underprivileged children to sleep-away camp. After the following summer we got to see pictures of the children who were able to attend the camps and we heard heartwarming stories about their experiences there. Seeing how amazing it was to help others I decided that is what I want to do in my future career. I am currently majoring in psychology and aiming to become a child psychiatrist so I can aid children struggling with mental illness and going through difficult situations.