Julia Potts

Julia Potts from Richmond, Rhode Island is an 18 year old, Chariho high school graduate from the class of 2022. Attending the University of Rhode Island in the fall of 2022, Julia is committed to obtaining a degree in biology and eventually going to Physician Assistant School. 

Julia has always been devoted to giving back to her community. At the age of 6 she began working alongside her father in the Kids Grow Garden, planting and harvesting vegetables that were donated to food shelters. Alongside her efforts to support the community, you could always find Julia on the soccer field.  She played soccer from 1st grade to 8th grade alongside her sister, Maddie where she learned how to be a leader and remain resilient through obstacles on the field and in her life. Becoming a captain of the middle school soccer team in 8th grade is something she will never forget as her sister was also captain of the high school soccer team at the same time. Maddie was Julia’s biggest inspiration, and always pushed Julia out of her comfort zone. 

On September 23, 2017 Julia attended one of Maddie’s soccer games with her friends, dreaming of playing on the same field as captain just like her sister. Suddenly, her sister Maddie suffered a fatal brain aneurysm on the field with Julia, her father, and her friends sitting in the stands. Immediately after her passing, the community came together to support Julia and her family, taking care of them for months as they grieved the loss of Maddie. 

In an effort to carry on Maddie’s legacy, the Potts Family founded the Maddie Potts Foundation, dedicated to serving the community and spreading Maddie’s loving and caring spirit. As a co-founder of the foundation, Julia began spreading Maddie’s story over social media, raising over $900,000 with the help of her community! With this, they began the construction of the Maddie Potts Memorial FieldHouse, located directly next to the field that she played on and died on. Although Julia was not able to continue her soccer career, she continued to spread her sister’s story and branch into other interest’s like art and modeling. 

Through all of these achievements, Julia is most proud of her internship in the special education program at Chariho High School. Through teaching lessons and life skills Julia was able to build strong relationships with the students in the special education program. Julia was told that so many of the students looked up to her as a role model, but the truth is, the students gave Julia her life back. One in particular, Knia Richardson came to the high school when Julia was a Junior. Knia never let her diagnosis of Cerebral Palsy hold her back from being herself or achieving goals. A light in Julia’s life, Knia also inspired Julia to talk more openly about her diagnosis of depression and attention deficit disorder. If Knia did not let her diagnosis hold her back, Julia most certainly was not going to let her diagnosis hold her back either. Advocating for her peers who felt lost in their mental illness drove Julia to create her platform: The Strongest Thing You Can Do Is Ask For Help.

Although Julia will be dedicating her time to her academics this coming fall, she will never stop giving back to her community and advocate for Mental Health Awareness. Julia is so excited to share her platform nationally at Miss Teen USA with the growing support from her community. As Miss Rhode Island Teen USA 2022, she hopes to be a role model for everyone, encouraging people to give back to their communities worldwide.