Rachel Limiani doesn’t let anything stop her from reaching her goals. Rachel is a leader at Greater Latrobe. 

Rachel is president of Interact Club, a historian for the National Honor Society,  and she is a member of the track team and diving team. Rachel joined the diving team only last year, in those two years she has qualified for the WPIAL championships twice. 

Outside of school, Rachel volunteers at Twin Lakes Rehabilitation Center and coaches young children at Willow Tree Gymnastics. Limani says, “It is very rewarding to get to come back and teach kids especially when I was in their shoes not long ago.” 

While being president of the Interact Club Rachel supervised the planning of the Reverse Role basketball game, which raised over $4,000 for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospitals. Rachel said, “It was a big event. We started planning 5 or 6 months ago. I am thankful that a lot of club members and officers stepped up to help me because it is a big challenge.”

Last year, Rachel had the opportunity to go on a study abroad trip to Bueno Aires, Argentina. Rachel and some friends while there stayed with a host family and had the opportunity to improve their Spanish skills. She said, “It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience and I will be forever grateful for the experience.”

Next year, Rachel will be attending the University of Mary Washington, Fredericksburg Virginia, where she will also be playing rugby. 

Originally, Rachel was committed to attending St. Rose College in Albany, New York. St Rose had Division II athletics and Rachel was committed to pole vault. However, a week after she signed a curveball was thrown her way.

Rachel said, “I was watching Channel 11 news and they were talking about St Rose closing and it took me a minute to realize that my school was shutting down.” 

Rachel couldn’t have a minute to process this news. She immediately started researching other colleges she could attend. Rachel had been talking to St Rose since her junior year so she had no other schools in mind. 

She was emailing schools about pole vaulting for them. She was on a tour for the University of Mary Washington track and field team where she met the rugby coach. Rachel said, “I was on the track, and the rugby coach and I started talking and at the end of our conversation he asked me if I wanted to play rugby and I was like ‘Sure!'”

Rachel is majoring in Math and Physics education, with aspirations of becoming a teacher. Rachel said her 5th-grade math teacher from LES  inspired her to want to be a teacher. She said, “Seeing Miss Poland interact with students sparked my interest in becoming a teacher.”

Rachel has and will continue to leave a positive impact on her classmates and teachers here at Greater Latrobe. We are excited to see what her future holds and have no doubts that she will continue radiating kindness wherever she goes. She will leave Latrobe as a generation leader.