Discus Awards

Jesse Darrow, a high school sophomore from Florida, is a 2010-2011 Discus Award winner, recognized for his achievements in community service, green, and other achievements.  At the beginning of his freshmen year, Jesse founded Operation Peanut Butter and Jelly, a program that provides weekend meals to the families of students enrolled in the free or reduced lunch programs at his high school.  In just one year, Operation PB&J has provided more than 32,000 meals to more than 120 people.

In addition to his more than 500 hours of work for Operation Peanut Butter and Jelly, Jesse leads his high school's Environment and Technology Committee. One of his responsibilities in this position includes running his school's recycling program through which he's helped recycle more than 200 tons of recyclable materials.  Jesse, explaining some of the other community service work he's involved in, writes, "I also volunteered for two years at my city's local nature facility, where I helped to lead nature walks, feed the animals, and test algae samples from local water sources."

Congratulations, Jesse, you are today's Discus Award Winner of the Day!

To read more about Jesse, visit his winner's profile.

Filed under: Discus Dan • All-Around High School Students • Discus Award Winner of the Day

For our second ever Discus Competition, we're going to melt your hearts with a variety of perspectives on the romantic setting of the sun. If you're like us, many of you haven't seen the sun for a little while now, and we thought there was no better way to reintroduce you to our world's energy source than to soothe you with its retiring beauty.  Gaze in awe at these natural masterpieces and then vote for your favorite.  The Discus Award winner with the most votes by Valentine's Day will win an iTunes gift card, so make sure you hurry before the sun sets on this competition!

(Click on an image to enlarge)

Bonnie Buffington	Chelsea Medeiros	Hannah Lee	Haley Carman	Taylor Knobloch

Filed under: Discus Dan • All-Around High School Students • Discus Awards Competition

Today we sneak a peak through the lens of Discus Award winner Ben Drucker's camera, out at the beautiful peaks and valleys of nature.  Ben was recognized by the Discus Awards for his achievements in the attributes of work, academics, and community service.  At the ripe young age of 14, Ben founded his own business, Ben Drucker Photography, through which he's taken photographs for dozens of clients, grossing more than $10,000 in the past year.  His business has cleary given him an opportunity to hone his craft, as evidenced by his stunning image that has been selected as today's, Discus Award Winner Picture of the Day.

"Landscape"

Filed under: Discus Dan • All-Around High School Students • Discus Award Winner Picture of the Day

Ronne Turner is the Associate Vice President of Enrollment & Dean of Admissions and Marketing at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts.  She also authors the blog Northeastern Admissions: An Inside Look. 

Congratulations on making it through the first half of the junior year! Hopefully you had a successful semester with your activities, athletics and in your classes. As you probably know, your performance in your junior year courses is critically important in the college admission process. College admissions committees focus on these grades as it is the last full year we are going to see when making a decision on your application. Even though the committee will see your first term or even your mid-year senior grades, these grades only reflect a short period of time. It is important that you continue to do your best!

In the meantime, you may have already begun to hear from colleges about their programs and inviting you to visit their campuses. You may even have heard from Northeastern University already! How did we get your contact information? You gave it to us. When you registered to take standardized testing like the PSAT, you indicated you would be willing to receive information from colleges.

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Filed under: Dean Turner • College Prep • College Admissions

We have a double feature for you all today on the Discus Awards Blog.  Two musical performances featuring the highly talented '10-'11 Discus Award winner, Jenesis Torralba, recognized for her excellence in arts, faith, and other achievements.  Watch it, sing it, dance, rewind it...and repeat!

The first video we're going to share with you today shows Jenesis and her band performing a cover of a song you may know.  The song is titled "I Want You Back", a classic song from the 1970s by the Jackson 5.

The second video is a solo performance by Jenesis, strumming her guitar and flexing her pipes.  Sing your heart out, Jenesis, you are the main event in today's Video of the Day post.

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Filed under: Discus Dan • All-Around High School Students • Discus Award Winner Video of the Day