HER DEDICATION DRAWS NOTICE

Eighth-Grader Takes A Lead In Student Outreach Programs

CORAL SPRINGS - When Natasha Khan isn't in class, chances are she's
promoting acts of kindness, raising money for research or
encouraging other students to avoid drugs.

"I like helping children," said Khan, 13, an eighth-grader at
Ramblewood Middle School.

The teen's dedication to humanitarian efforts is comparable to that
of an adult's, her teachers said.

As president of three student-based organizations, she is
responsible for all the community service projects at the school.
Khan often makes posters, decorates bulletin boards to promote
campaigns or events and works behind the scenes, school officials said.

"She gives of herself for the sole purpose of making others who are
less fortunate better," said Robbin Chamoff, peer center coordinator
at Ramblewood Middle School. "She gives hours and hours of her
after-school time, of her morning hours, of anytime she has a spare
moment ... to make another child's life better."

Under her leadership as president of Crime Watch, the Human
Relations Council and the Just Say No clubs, students raise money to
support the University of Miami's Linda Ray Intervention Center, a
research preschool for Miami babies whose mothers used
cocaine during pregnancy.

"These children don't have parents. The state is their parents," Khan said.

The students also make greeting cards in memory of military
personnel and law enforcement officers who died in the line of duty.
The students sell the cards for $1 and give the money to the
Intervention Center.

The same 15 students make up all three groups and each week they
meet as a different body.

The Just Say No club decorated a bulletin board with posters and
other material to urge students to avoid using drugs.

"We help kids realize that the drug way is not the way to go ...
that they shouldn't do drugs," said Khan, who was recently honored
as a South Florida Sun-Sentinel Kid of Character for responsibility
in the program that recognizes students who best exemplify the
Broward County School District's character education traits.

"She deserves it," Hina Khan said of her daughter. "She is very
hardworking and she never gets tired."

She carries such caring and compassion to her home, Hina Khan said.
When her daughter was in kindergarten, she took extra lunch for
friends who didn't have lunch, Khan said.

This is one in a series of stories on students who best exemplify
the Broward County School District's eight character education
traits -- cooperation, responsibility, citizenship, kindness,
respect, honesty, self-control and tolerance -- and patriotism as
part of all eight.