Scottsdale Christian’s Christina Clark has dreams, reality of helping others

Scottsdale Christian student Christina Clark has always been willing to help others.

As a youngster, she played nurse whenever her mother got ill. In the fifth grade, she earned the nickname “The Psychiatrist” from a classmate who searched out Clark to make him feel at ease whenever he had a rough day.

These days, Clark’s drive to help others is blossoming into bigger things.

Around captaining her school’s lacrosse and cheer teams, Clark is trying to make a difference. She’s filed to create her own nonprofit called Children’s Care Ministries.

“Right now, we’re starting out with care packages and we are kind of gearing those toward the homeless and the military, and also trying to get the children involved with that, so going around to schools and talking,” Clark said. “Just get them excited and give them a heart to serve too.”

She sees the future of her own nonprofit as being similar to Operation Christmas Child and feels determined to help it evolve into a national organization that helps those who often get overlooked.

Until then, Clark will remain busy. The National Honor Society recently inducted her, and she will continue her academic work with an eye on heading to a Texas school or the University of Arizona to eventually become a doctor.

Anesthesiology is of particular interest, and the junior’s experience alone would indicate she has a grasp on that line of work.

Through a program at Scottsdale Bible Church, Clark has traveled to Spain once and Valladolid, Mexico, on the Yucatan Peninsula three times to shadow doctors. Under their supervision, she’s intubated, stitched up and given IVs to patients.

A step out of the learning environment, Clark’s helping nature has led to her captaincy for both cheer and lacrosse, the latter of which she took an interest in while growing up in Kentucky. Her older brother got her hooked on the sport.

She’d love to continue playing after high school, but her priorities remain clear.

“It’s not for the titles. Later on in life, they’re not going to be like, ‘Oh, she’s captain of two sports team and started this,'” Clark said. “Every since I was little, I’ve been interested in helping people. Growing up, a lot of my friends’ parents were doctors, and I kind of got to see what they did around that. It just kind of lit a fire in me.”

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