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by Abby Bench and Vanessa Jimenez
Overachievers. Involved. Hardworking. Unique. These are words that can be used to describe the 2020-2021 Sterling Scholars. The Sterling Scholars are a group of individuals who compete against 13 other schools from our surrounding area in one of 15 categories for a chance to get a scholarship.
This year’s Sterling Scholars are Adam Cox, social science; Azlyn
Freeman, family and consumer science; Liz Madsen, general; Eneli Silva, foreign languages; Harry Cook, math; Jared Strait, science; Kaje Nielsen, computer technology; Kaylee Anderson, English; Maren Bench, drama; Shalyce Cook, dance; Spencer Olson, music; and Rance Christensen, trade and technical education. The business and marketing, visual arts, and agriculture categories weren’t filled this year.
“[The Sterling Scholars] are usually kind of the leaders of the school or
really outgoing kids,” said the Sterling Scholars advisor Jori Turpin.
Turpin has been part of the Sterling Scholar program for almost six years. For five of those years she was co-chair with Ben Cox, who took the program and improved it significantly. But now it’s just Turpin.
“It’s definitely more stressful,” Turpin said. “I’m going to try to give it my all and see
how it goes.”
If she decides it’s too much for one person, she will look for someone to help her. But as of right now, Turpin is on her own.
Cox leaving isn’t the only change that happened. The coronavirus has had an impact on
the Sterling Scholars as well.
“It’s hard sometimes,” said Liz Madsen, the general Sterling Scholar. “But you know you’ve always got to look at the good and control what you can and leave alone what you can’t.”
Though this has been challenging, Madsen finds the positive. One way she does this is through service.
Service is a huge part of being a Sterling Scholar. It’s one of the best ways to improve their portfolio. Their portfolio is a collection of what they’ve done while they’re a Sterling Scholar. When they go to competition in March, the judges look at the portfolios and conduct interviews. Some Sterling Scholars even perform.
NS usually does very well at the competitions. A total of 50 kids have won or gotten runner up these past six years. We’ve had more students win and more runners up than any other school. We’re first with 50 total, Delta had 42, and Manti was third with 36. The winner receives a 2,500 dollar scholarship and the runner up gets 1,000.
“It’s super fun to be a sterling scholar,” Madsen said. “You get to be with a team of people who are all high achievers and who want to help people.”
