On April 16, Skyline’s Sterling Scholar finalists were publicly recognized and awarded for the pursuit of excellence in scholarship, leadership and citizenship in the State of Utah at the Sterling Scholar Wasatch Front Award Night. Here’s how they placed: Johnathan Chen, Business winner; Juntian Deng, Math runner up; Khevna Navin, Skilled and Technical Sciences runner up; and Ava Szajnuk, Gail Miller Community Service Award nominee. 

Johnathan Chen praised Skyline’s counselors, mainly Angela Wheeler. He said, “Without [Wheeler], I wouldn’t have been able to succeed in the Sterling Scholar program.” Chen spoke about how much she supported him in his portfolio and interview, and how much passion she showed for the program, truly wanting every single one of the scholars to win and improve as much as possible.

Before the ceremony, Chen had low expectations. “I warned my parents that I probably won’t win anything,” he said. Being able to celebrate his achievement with them was very special to him. He said, “I will cherish it for a lifetime.” 

Chen’s biggest takeaway from the whole experience wasn’t just that he had won; rather it was looking around at all the other scholars, all the talented students Skyline and Utah has to offer. He stated, “I am proud to say that my fellow Sterling Scholars are my classmates, and I’m so excited to see what each scholar will achieve.”

Chen was the only winner for Skyline, but many other students from Skyline achieved nominations at the ceremony. Juntian Deng was the runner up for the Mathematics Sterling Scholar, being president of Mission Math (a math tutoring non-profit organization) and being in many clubs at Skyline. The other runner up for Skyline was Khevna Navin inSkilled and Technical Sciences; she is VP of Skyline Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA) and engineered a tuberculosis test that gives results much faster than others. The last Skyline student to be recognized at the Sterling Scholar Ceremony was Ava Szajnuk, who was nominated for the Gail Miller Community Service Award. She is a captain of the Skyline Debate Team who has placed top 50 in the Nation for Congressional Debate.

The Sterling Scholars have put in a lot of effort into their schooling and have been extremely dedicated in all of their fields in all their time at Skyline. “Everyone at Skyline is amazing, and everyone at the final ceremony had extraordinary leadership, service, and academics,” Chen said.