Litzy Guevara, senior at Notre Dame Academy, is an active student athlete who improved her skills throughout the years to get into the Top 10 on the Varsity Girls Cross Country team.

She started running because of the inspiration of her father.  

“He always wanted to chase the moon. Every time he’d come back home, I asked him, ‘Did you chase the moon?’ and he would say, ‘No, the moon always beats me, but someday I will beat the moon’ and that just got me going. That is how I started.”

The running has improved over the years.   “I have been working hard to be better in how I run and try to beat that voice inside my head while I was running,” said Guevara. 

During her years as a runner she was injured several times, but that never stopped her from chasing her dreams, mostly in cross country. 

“As you run, it is like you are breathing. I feel like I am actually breathing.It is like a therapy for me,” said Guevara.

One of the core values at Notre Dame Academy is service for others. Guevara is one of many talented young people who represent NDA in projecting these values into their everyday lives.

Guevara is a gymnastics instructor at Downtown YMCA and the East YMCA for kids from 3 to 10 years old.

“I started becoming a gymnastics instructor in my junior year because I always wanted to teach little kids and wanted to inspire them to do things that they love,” said the senior.

Kids are giving her so much energy and motivation to continue in her work.

“I love how they always smile, and there is this one girl, like every Monday at the end of class she always give me a hug because she is always so happy that I am her teacher.”

“I used to do gymnastics. I just quit this year,” said Guevara. “When I saw Gabby Douglas at the Olympics, it just wow-ed me, so I was just okay, I want to do that.”