Newport Beach teen earns spot on National Charity League national council

Newport Beach resident Sophia Gazzaniga was a shy girl growing up in the National Charity League since she became a member of its junior program while in kindergarten.

She also felt like a bit of an outsider, as the only one in her Newport chapter who went to St. Margaret’s Episcopal School. Most of her peers in the chapter attend Corona del Mar or Mater Dei high schools, she said.

“I had so much trouble making friends,” she said. “I didn’t really like to socialize, and I was kind of outcast.”

In applying for the National Charity League’s National Ticktocker Advisory Council, though, she wrote about how she’s been in leadership positions in the mother-daughter nonprofit organization over the years. That has helped her gain confidence.

“Now I’m a very talkative member of my NCL community,” said Sophia, a junior at St. Margaret’s who also plays girls’ basketball and lacrosse for the Tartans. “It’s the same girls, I just had to overcome my shyness and just share my perspectives and not care about other girls’ opinions about me. I had to be happy with who I am as myself.”

Sophia now uses her talents to help benefit the organization on a national level.

She is one of 20 girls nationwide who were selected for the National Ticktocker Advisory Council this school year. The group meets on Zoom every few weeks to discuss NCL programs and ideas.

Sophia Gazzaniga and her mother Lisa Gazzaniga pose for a portrait at their home in Newport Beach on Thursday.

(Scott Smeltzer / Staff Photographer)

”Ticktockers” is not a reference to a popular social media platform. They are NCL girls in grades seven through 12. This year’s National Advisory Council will focus on grade-level curriculum and development of a selection process for the new Inspire Innovation Ticktocker grant.

They exemplify the organization’s three pillar traits: philanthropy, leadership and culture.

“We’ve gone over ideas with what we’d like to keep with NCL, what we’d like to change, what we’d like to fix,” Sophia said. “The chapter tea ... do we keep this or do we not? Is it modern, or is it just a little bit outdated? Personally, I think it’s a little bit outdated, but it’s a great way to learn etiquette skills.”

Sophia, who participates in NCL with her mother, Lisa, is happy to offer her two cents to the panel. She’s served as an officer in the Newport chapter every year for her Class of 2024, chapter co-president Melissa Meehan said, including as the president for 2019-20.

“She is well equipped for her role with National,” Meehan said in an email. “We’re thrilled to have one of our very own Ticktockers step up to such an important role as the National Ticktocker Advisory Council. Each chapter has their own Ticktocker Council, so it’s exciting that she’ll be able to take their feedback and more directly represent our own Ticktockers at a national level.”

Meehan, who shares the chapter president duties with Mollie Rosing, said Newport’s Ticktockers served nearly 9,000 hands-on philanthropy hours last year. Sophia has been involved with the group’s partnership with the Share Our Selves food pantry in Costa Mesa, and she also has volunteered as a leader-in-training at camps at the Environmental Nature Center.

Sophia Gazzaniga is a junior at St. Margaret’s who plays on the girls’ basketball and lacrosse teams.

(Scott Smeltzer / Staff Photographer)

“You get to advise the kids in how to be a kind person to one another,” she said. “Sometimes kids struggle with being kind or sharing things, [but] sharing is caring. You also get the responsibility of being an adult, but you’re not an adult quite yet. It’s nice to have that responsibility. It brightens my day every time I go to ENC, because I learn something about nature all the time.”

Sophia, who is also a part of three student-led clubs at St. Margaret’s, is happy to give back to her community. The National Ticktocker Advisory Council gives her a chance to even go above and beyond that.

“I really enjoy it,” she said. “It’s so nice to hear other girls’ ideas. They all have the same motive — they want to make NCL a better place than it already is. Their ideas are so amazing, and their ability to lead the group online is great. The community that we’re evolving through that group is just really positive and happy.”

She added with a smile that she was glad that her application essay was well-received. She said she was treating it almost like a college entrance essay. She still has a year to go before worrying about that, though her older brother, Caden, a senior at St. Margaret’s, is currently in that realm.

Lisa Gazzaniga is just happy that her daughter, no longer a shy girl but now a young woman full of confidence, made the decision to go for it.

“I’m glad that she put herself out there and applied for it,” Lisa Gazzaniga said. “She saw that she had enough experience to do it, and she realized that she has a lot to share with others and bring it back to the other Ticktockers in her group.”

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