North Sanpete High excels at Sterling Scholar awards night
By Robert Stevens
Managing editor
3-24-2016
RICHFIELD—At the Central Utah Region Sterling Scholar Awards held on March 15 at the Sevier Valley Center, Sanpete County students won seven out of 15 categories.
North Sanpete High School took the most category wins, with three in total.
“It’s always a privilege to work with such amazing students, but this year was especially rewarding,” Ben Cox, counselor and Sterling Scholars coordinator for North Sanpete, said, “They really went in as underdogs, and we didn’t expect to do as well as we did, but they proved they are excellent. I’m extremely proud of them.”
Natalee Walker, daughter of Dan and Marli Walker of Spring City, was the winner in English and Literature and has a 3.6 GPA.
Larissa Beck, daughter of Wade and Judy Beck of Fountain Green, was the winner of Dance and maintains a 3.9 GPA.
Abinadi Swapp, who has a 3.9 GPA, was the winner of Computer and Information Technology and is the son of Jon and Anne Swapp of Mt. Pleasant.
North Sanpete also had four runners-up: Hannah Talbot in Speech and Drama, Landon Beebe in Trade and Technical Education, Jessica Farnsworth in Music and Gaby Reyes in World Languages.
“I think there’s great value in this program—not just because students win and get scholarships but because it encourages them to do things they might not normally do and to serve in ways that they otherwise might not,” Cox said.
Manti and Gunnison Valley high schools also did well in the competition.
Manti had two winners: Jared Christensen in the Trade and Technical Education category and Alexa Vernon in Art.
Five Templars earned runner up as well: Sierra Mickelson in English and Literature; Kristlyn Peterson in Mathematics, Kayden Stevenson in Science, Jonathan Barton in Speech and Drama and Shayla Greene in General Scholarship.
Gunnison Valley High School had two category winners: Cassandra Hansen in Family and Consumer Sciences and Josie Sorenson in Agriculture Science.
The Central Utah region of six counties included candidates from 14 high schools, and North Sanpete had 14 candidates this year, Manti also had 14 and Gunnison Valley had four.
The Sterling Scholar Awards began in 1962 in Salt Lake City to honor excellence in high school seniors, and the awards program spread to all of Utah soon thereafter.
Quite a few higher education institutions in the state offer scholarships to Sterling Scholars.
For instance, Snow College offers a full-tuition resident scholarship for two years or four semesters to all regional category winners in any Sterling Scholar category. For regional category runners-up in any Sterling Scholar category, a $1,000 per semester scholarship for two years or four semesters is offered. However, this scholarship cannot be used in conjunction with an academic scholarship.
For comparison in the region, Delta had nine finalists (winners and runners-up), South Sevier five, North Sevier four, Juab three, Millard three, Richfield three and Wayne two finalists. North Sanpete and Manti both had seven finalists, and Gunnison Valley had two.
Photos of the finalists and additional information are at http://www.sterlingscholar.org.
