Governor Malloy’s press secretary, Samaia Hernandez, will be the recipient of the Victoria L. Soto Memorial Award presented by Nutmeg Big Brothers Big Sisters, Connecticut’s premier youth mentoring organization.
Named in honor of Victoria Soto, a teacher at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown who died heroically on December 14, 2012 in an attempt to save the lives of students in her care, the award honors those making a significant contribution to advancing the mentoring concept and for changing the lives of children in need for the better. Victoria was a “Big Sister” in Nutmeg’s Windham School District site-based mentoring program for each of her four years as an undergraduate at Eastern Connecticut State University.
Samaia lives in Hartford and has been a Big Sister since 2008, mentoring a 16-year-old named Veronica from Meriden. Prior to holding her current position, Samaia has been a producer/reporter at Connecticut Public Radio, a reporter at the Hartford Courant, and a reporter at the Meriden Record-Journal. She was also one of Connecticut Magazine’s “40-Under-40” award winners for 2014.
Congratulations on this honorable accomplishment Samaia!
