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Park City High School names Sterling Scholars

Back row, left to right: Karl Graf, Max Jones, Jake Oberg, Garrett McClellan, Emma Judd and Annie Sheinberg. Middle row, left to right: Josie Slobodow, Shaun Roberts, Gigi Perkins and Camille Breiholz. Front row, left to right: Claire Oberg, Alessandra Marre, Brennah Strange, Nina Williams, April Buys and Will Watkins.
Photo by Kristin Silvestri

When Shaun Roberts received an email announcing that she was a Sterling Scholar, she could not help but remember the previous winners. She thought about how much she had admired them, and how underclassmen at Park City High School might be looking up to her.

Roberts and 15 other students at PCHS were recently named the school’s Sterling Scholars. They competed against their classmates to be recognized in different categories, such as vocal performance, science and world languages. Now, the Park City seniors will compete against students around the region to be named the overall Sterling Scholars.

Roberts, who won in the category of business and marketing, said being named a Sterling Scholar is a big honor because it is not only representative of academic skill. Sterling Scholars are selected for their scholarship, leadership and citizenship, according to the Sterling Scholar website. Finalists receive scholarship opportunities at Utah colleges.



Roberts said several hours of community service and extra-curricular activities strengthened her application. Will Watkins, who won the Sterling Scholar for skilled and technical sciences, said the award was validation for all of the work that he has put in over the years.

“It’s nice to get some recognition for all the after hours that I put in for the engineering department,” Will Watkins, Sterling Scholar

“It’s nice to get some recognition for all the after hours that I put in for the engineering department,” he said.



He said he was “immensely excited,” and a little shocked, that he was recognized.

Kristin Silvestri, community scholarship advisor, said several of the 54 candidates who applied for the Sterling Scholar honor were high achieving. The selection committee, made up of faculty, administration and the counseling team, had to add some rounds of application review because it had such a difficult time picking just one winner for each category. The school awarded one representative for each of the 16 possible categories. For the next round of the competition, the students must prepare portfolios, gather letters of recommendation and go through an interview process. Silvestri said she will work with the students to help them perfect their portfolios and get them ready for the interviews in the spring. Regardless of whether or not the students win the overall competition, Silvestri said each of them benefit because they learn invaluable skills.

Annie Sheinberg, who won the Sterling Scholar for math, applied for the award without totally knowing what she was getting herself into. But now that she is here, she said she is excited to jump in and learn how to represent the school and her field of study.

“I think the competition as well is important because getting into college is competitive and getting a job is competitive. It’s one of those things that you are going to have to do in life, so I think this will be a really good life skill,” she said.

The winners at Park City High School were: Max Jones, science; Alessandra Marre, world languages; Nina Williams, speech/theatre arts/forensics; Brennah Strange, family and consumer science; Camille Breiholz, English; Claire Oberg, general; April Buys, vocal performance; Karl Graf, computer technology; Jake Oberg, social science; Annie Sheinberg, math; Josie Slobodow, dance; Emma Judd, instrumental music; Gigi Perkins, visual arts; Shaun Roberts, business and marketing; Garrett McClellan, agricultural science and Will Watkins, skilled and trade technical education.

Education

Park City High School speech and debate team wins state tournament

“I have so much faith in what this program provides to kids, not only academically, but what I have seen firsthand is the means by which this activity provides kids who are neurodivergent with a safe space in which they are celebrated,” Williams said. “That’s really important to me, and so important to me that I’m not going to leave the program anytime soon.”



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