By Lisseth Hernandez
Central Islip High School
Emily Soriano, a 16-year-old rising senior at Westbury High School, is walking proof of resilience as she overcomes her lifelong illness to strive for more, from the world of writing to the world of sports.
Throughout middle school, Emily struggled with confidence both at home and at church.
“I hated church because I didn’t understand what was going on and felt alone,” she said. “I used to feel alone because I had no one to speak to about my feelings, but when I pray to God, I feel an indescribable peace.”
She said being able to pray and express herself without judgment is like a breath of fresh air.
“I have four older sisters, one older brother and one younger brother,” she said. “My older siblings all being in their 30s and my younger brother being eight left me alone. Being the middle child and having such a large age gap with my other siblings always left me isolated with feelings of loneliness. As time passed by I bottled up my emotions and didn’t speak to anyone. When I got to high school and was presented with the idea of a newspaper club, it sparked my interest and motivated me to open up to new experiences.”
Emily is familiar with overcoming adversity.
“I’ve had a heart defect since birth where I have holes in my heart, not flowing enough blood through my body and my heart beat is never at a regular pace,” she explained. “I struggled a lot with doing physical activities due to this.”
This caused Emily to cut her varsity basketball season short.
“She always found a way to look into the positive side and genuinely pushed through it,” her best friend Natalie Richards, 16, recalled. “She showed resilience and motivated me along with her friends.”
Emily acknowledges that in the face of this she was met with community. “To my surprise a lot of people from my church came to visit me,” she said. “I never felt such love and warmth, with their words of encouragement. I felt the strength and willpower growing to not give up.”
Entering high school during this time, she would meet her former English teacher and current newspaper advisor, Ms. Beneduce.
“It all started freshman year when I had stellar grades in English and my teacher wanted to be an advisor for a newspaper club but there wasn’t really an active one at the time,” Emily said. “So we got the graphic design teacher to be the other advisor, and we basically just got to work with creating a website and posting stories with pictures and getting students to join even if it meant walking about the halls asking people if they were interested.”
Now she’s heavily involved in school and a great extrovert influence to her peers.
Emily is Class of 2026 president, president/head editor of the newspaper, president of Orchestra 10-12, active in church choir, a volunteer at the school pantry and recently has been outspoken about school silence on immigration and “the involuntary removal of teachers in the district.”
“I also volunteer at the library with arts and crafts,” she added. “At Park Avenue Elementary School and the middle school I help the children with sports like soccer and basketball.”
She’s applying herself further now as she reaches new heights.
“I applied for the Robert W. Greene Summer Institute for High School Journalists to help advance my abilities to be the best version of my writing capabilities,” she said. “I see writing as a form to express my creativity and emotions. I hope to receive knowledge, memories and bonds that I can hold on to forever out of this program.”