Preliminary judging sends four Sky View Sterling Scholars to state
Sky View high school’s Sterling Scholars competed at the preliminary regions level earlier this week, and four are continuing onto the State level.
Every year, high school seniors have the opportunity to put together portfolios and submit them to try and earn the Sterling Scholar title in whichever category they wish, such as Science, Mathematics, and Speech/Drama, for example. Portfolios consist of a transcript, leadership/citizenship experiences, and examples of the candidate’s work. At the high school level, they were judged on their portfolios and sat before a panel of teachers over their specific department who interviewed them about their topic. If chosen, the workload substantially increased in preparation for competition.
On February 17th, Sky View’s eleven scholars competed at Northridge high school for the chance to go on to State and win scholarships and recognition. Competing with students from about nineteen other schools, they had the chance to meet new people in their department and try their best to shine.
One at a time, they were escorted to separate rooms and ushered inside to answer questions about themselves and their topic. Some found interesting requirements, such as Aly Johnson, Sky View’s Visual Art Sterling Scholar, who was instructed that she could showcase as much art as she could carry without help. Nate Heaps, the Foreign Language Scholar, was interviewed almost entirely in Spanish, and others had to perform during their interview.
Hosted by KSL 5 and the Deseret News, Utah’s Sterling Scholar program is one of the best in the state that features the talents and academic performance of students. Not only does it give them a chance to showcase their high school career, it gives them the chance to earn money and exposure to opportunity.
This year’s Sterling Scholars advancing onto the State level are: Rebekka Wallentine in Trade & Technical Education, Aly Johnson in Visual Art, Arianna Rees in English, and Bret T. Hansen in Business & Marketing. They will compete with fourteen other candidates from Utah’s other two districts on March 3rd for the title of State Sterling Scholar.