St. Joseph honors top students
Friday, Jun. 06, 2014
Intermountain Catholic
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Courtesy of SJCHS
By Special to the Intermountain Catholic
OGDEN — Girls Volleyball State Champion Audra Thurston isn’t your ordinary athlete, student or community volunteer.
“There is really nothing ordinary about Audra,” states Saint Joseph Catholic Schools President Joanna Wheelton.
Thurston is the 2014 recipient of the Saint Joseph Award, which was established to honor a graduating senior who is an extraordinary example of the values at Saint Joseph Catholic High School: academic achievement, community engagement and service to others.
In nominating Thurston, one teacher wrote that “she has a heart of gold.”
A “Lifer” at Saint Joe’s, Thurston was among the 30 percent of the graduating class who had attended the school since kindergarten. In nominating her, another teacher wrote, “She connects deeply with her faith and lives out her respect for life and dignity each day.”
As a Student Body Officer, Thurston organized the school’s Souper Bowl of Caring, working with the Joyce Hansen Hall Food Bank to solicit their most needed items. She also organized the school’s Angel Tree Project at Christmas.
In addition to the St. Joseph Award, Thurston won the Science Department Award; she will attend Michigan Tech University on a Women in Engineering Scholarship.
Joining Thurston in recognition was her close friend Rachel Sutherland, who was named SJCHS’s valedictorian – acknowledging her rank as first academically in the 2014 graduating class.
In addition to academic excellence, Sutherland’s talents were broad: She competed on the cross-country team, served as a class officer in student government, participated on the school’s Brain Bowl Team, and acted as the student historian.
Dr. Monika Serbinowska, who teaches mathematics, stated, “Outside of her unmatched expertise in social sciences and English, Rachel enrolled in AP math and science courses and excelled at the top level. At the beginning of Rachel’s senior year, a fellow teacher told me that Rachel’s abilities to write, analyze and perform reading comprehension were the best he has even seen.”
Wheelton agrees, stating, “Rachel is the best student I have had the pleasure to know. I told her that I look forward to watching her path as she journeys forth. Rachel is going to move mountains.”
Sutherland will attend Carleton College on an academic scholarship.
Courtesy of SJCHS
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