Her accomplishments at Bishop O’Connell High School in Arlington could hardly be greater.
Class valedictorian Alexandra Llaudes was captain of the soccer team that won the NVIS State Invitational championship three out of four years, class retreat organizer, a talented violinist and scholarship recipient for the University of Notre Dame where she will pursue a pre-medical curriculum.
But Llaudes thinks the most important lesson she learned at O’Connell was the importance of serving others. “I think people don’t realize that even though we’re young, it doesn’t mean that we have an out,” she said. “We still have the responsibility to go out and help others. Yes, there are wars going on around the world, but there’s also people struggling right next door and sometimes we don’t realize it.”
Llaudes recently organized a two-day Lenten “Do it for the Sake of Peace” retreat. “One side was focusing on your interior journey and the other side focused on Catholic social teaching principles and applying them into your everyday life,” she said. “We wanted to promote unity in our community and one thing we did was to have a night for our troops to raise awareness of how we can better appreciate and serve our veterans. We had other stations focusing on the poor and the vulnerable and so we had people writing cards to those in need, offering them support and words of encouragement.”
In the crush of her final semester, Llaudes added another activity that has been transforming.
“For Lent, my friend and I decided that we were going to go to Mass every day before school,” she said. “So we started doing it, and the peace and joy of practicing my faith every day helped me to focus on all the good in the world.”
To be an instrument of good, Llaudes wants to be a medical doctor in the field of pediatric oncology, where she will treat children with cancer. “People are always telling me how hard it’s going to be, telling me that I’ll end up crying a lot,” she said. “I know it will be emotionally tolling. It’s a hard profession, but I want to be a light in the lives of these children who can be excited when they go to the hospital to see their doctor.”
Embracing extreme challenges has been a big part of her education, such as learning how to play Vivaldi’s notoriously difficult “Autumn” from the “Four Seasons” concerto on the violin. “You look at that music and you’re like, ‘Whoa, hold on,’ ” she said. “But I started to practice it and realized that, ‘Yes, I can do this.’ Being able to overcome that barrier to play that piece was so rewarding. You feel so much better because you know that you put in all the work to achieve something.”
The challenges that await are great, and Llaudes knows that her future as a doctor will require more than knowledge and skill. “A doctor must be able to care and show compassion,” she said. “I want to be part of what brings my patients joy.”
