Congratulations, Class of 2009!
The Winter Sports School in Park City’s Class of 2009, the second largest in the school’s history, graduated Friday, November 20th, at the Prospector Lodging and Conference Center. At the ceremony 23 seniors received their diplomas.
The students come from a wide geographical area including Park City, Salt Lake City, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Hampshire, and New Mexico. The class proved to be very accomplished academically and set a high standard of academic achievement at the school through their classroom performance and also their results on the various college placement tests. One senior, Steven Nagie, qualified as a National Merit Semifinalist and is currently being reviewed for finalist status.
Jesse Hunt, the new director of the Park City Ski Team, gave the graduation address. He spoke about his experiences with USSA and how he was able to take a mediocre team and motivate them to a much higher level of performance. His remarks included quotes from his fellow Vermonter Calvin Coolidge about the importance of persistence. Hunt made it very clear that talent and skill were no guarantee of success from his experience. Success, he said, can only be achieved through persistence and hard work.
Graduates Amanda Veth, Kelly Mackenzie, and Colin Carrig were selected by their classmates to speak. All three attended the school for the past four years. The talked about the uniqueness of their experience at The Winter Sports School, where classes are held from mid-April to mid-November to accommodate the young athletes’ competition schedules. Each said the school had been an intimate and motivating experience.
Mackenzie and Carrig both described how the teachers made the school’s environment through their caring and willingness to go above and beyond the normal expectations in order to ensure each student’s success. They all noted how competitive their class had been academically and how they felt that they had set a new standard for the school based on their grades and standardized test results.
Two major awards for outstanding academic performance were announced. The most prestigious is the Kay Wright Memorial award which is given to the most outstanding senior as selected by the faculty. It is given in memory of the school’s first Head, Dr. Kay Wright. This year’s recipient was Amanda Veth of Taos, New Mexico.
The second major graduation award, the Dave Seiger Memorial Award, given to the senior with the highest level of achievement in the study of Mathematics and Science, went to Delainey Ackerman of Denver, Colorado. This award is given in memory of Dave Seiger, who was the original math and science teacher at the school.
Both awards are accompanied by scholarships of $1,000 and $500, respectively. There were also awards given for academic achievement in the subject disciplines offered by the Winter Sports School. The recipients of those awards were Steven Nagie for academic achievement in History, English, and Mathematics. Brandon Booth-Dunbar received awards for academic achievement in Spanish and Science. Sam Dupratt received the academic achievement award in Art.
Kelly Mackenzie received an award from the Winter Sports School faculty for achievement in leadership.
This graduation marks the completion of the Winter Sports School’s 16th academic year of providing a college preparatory curriculum to dedicated athletes.
Keep watching this space for more features on members of the graduating class of 2009. Congratulations to all of you, and please stay in touch. We’ll miss you!
