Discus Awards

If you want to read more about Kelly's experience, read her journal on her CaringBridge.

Hello everyone! I hope that your holidays have brought you peace, love, and happiness!

When I was diagnosed on June 24th, 2008 with Severe Aplastic Anemia my life completely changed. I was going to be a freshman in high school, one of the most exciting times of a person’s life! Severe Aplastic Anemia is a very rare blood-related disorder which is NOT cancer. My body still produced healthy cells, but the disease didn’t make enough cells in my bone marrow so I eventually would have run out and died.

Luckily, I had a ton of family and friends supporting me every step of the way, so I didn’t have to go through it alone. It was heartbreaking news to everyone around me and my family and I were devastated. I couldn’t stop talking about finally going to the same school as my sister! My school was very cooperative and sent homebound tutors; but I, with the help of my mom, taught myself all of my classes. I didn’t feel sorry for myself and flaunt this hardship around for pity because I am an extremely strong individual. I realized that God only gives the hardships to people he knows can handle and push through them. Boy did he choose an excellent person! I not only have been in remission for three years, my body responded to all the medicine without any major side effects!

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Filed under: Kelly Eastman • All-Around High School Students • Meet the Winner

It started the summer I tired of writing dog stories. I had decided that being published in a children’s fiction magazine was not going to be the extent of my writing career. So I snapped up the chance to write a few columns for the local newspaper—never mind that I was thirteen—and discovered I had much more to say than I thought.

Looking back on my fast-ending high school years, I am shocked at what I became: Campaigner. Teacher’s aide. Writer. Tutor. Pianist. PR manager. Speaker. Director. It’s all the more shocking because of what I am—a shy-ish homeschooler who never stepped foot in a classroom and preferred changing the world from a distance.

Being homeschooled since forever, I took it hard when I hit the teen years and learned that every other kid my age was in band, drama and French club. Everything the local homeschool group tried seemed to collapse a few weeks later. I resigned myself to a life of library haunting.

But then the strangest thing happened—my passionate side refused to go along with that. Fueled by the few strangers who hunted down my phone number and thanked me for writing those newspaper columns, I decided to serve instead of be served, to go hunting for opportunity instead of waiting for it. It wouldn’t come pre-packaged in clubs or classes—that I knew.

I just never expected my story to end like it did.

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Filed under: Bailey Bergmann • All-Around High School Students • Meet the Winner

At the beginning of my freshman year I formed a Youth Advisory committee with some of my peers to help promote the GAL (Guardian ad Litem) program on the Treasure Coast. My goal started out and remains; to not only help the children in this system but to also bring awareness about them and the GAL program to our community. Thousands of children in our community through no fault of their own end up in this situation each year. The court system appoints a Guardian ad Litem to represent each child going through dependency court. These trained volunteers put these children's best interest and safety first. I think the GAL program really makes a difference in the lives of these children that otherwise would have no one to speak for them. Without them what would then happen to those children? Who would these children's voices? Who would help them? I'm not sure that most people know just how many abused and neglected children we have in our own communities. I know how surprised and eye opening I found it, to discover how many children go without things my friends and I and take for granted. Not just basic necessities, but the feelings of safety, love, and having people care, I remain committed to this cause and helping these children.

A word to the wise; when forming a committee be careful about who you allow to join. Most high school students need a certain number of community service hours and I have learned there not all will care as much as you do about the cause you are working for. It's like running a business and delegating certain responsibilities need to go to your most responsible and hard working members. Otherwise, you constantly have to follow through and pick up the slack. You can't make other teenagers care as much as you! But, you can lead by example and after a couple of events you'll know who you can count on. Once you've chosen a cause you care about and worked out the details with the non-profit organization to create a youth committee you'll want to identify a need or initiate an event to raise awareness and or funds for your cause.

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Filed under: Colby Lufkin • All-Around High School Students • Meet the Winner

You may have already noticed a few changes to the Discus Awards website and recognition and scholarship program.  If you haven't, then this post will help you understand just how hard we've been working to provide outstanding students with high school recognition and college scholarship opportunities!

The first major change we've made to our program that I'd like to share with you today is the addition of network scholarships.  These scholarships, administered by our partner SAGE Scholars, represent a guaranteed minimum scholarship at any school within the Discus Network.  Unfortunately, for you high school seniors, students are only eligible to receive network scholarships through their junior year.  However, we still have our open scholarships for you seniors!

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Filed under: Discus Dan

In the summer of 2009 I started a business called The Rig. This is a mobile car wash business. Going into my junior year, I knew I needed a job, but I did not want to go the traditional route. Through my Father, I learned of a spray rig that was for sale for two thousand dollars, quite a hefty price for a high school student, but my Dad said he would back me so we purchased the rig. It started out small, but soon I got my own business cards and got regular clients. I paid my Dad back in full before the summer was even close to being over and made a great profit.

It was definitely hard sometimes scheduling clients around gym sessions and football camps, but I had to weigh my priorities and schedule accordingly. During the school year, I washed a little bit but not much, because school comes before making money. Being your own boss makes it hard to work sometimes knowing there are no consequences for not working; I learned to self-motivate.

I believe learning how to effectively run a profitable business was a great experience for me and has really taught me how start a business in the future. My future goal is to own an elite athletic training facility and what I learned operating The Rig will be invaluable to me when I begin that endeavor. It is a little scary not knowing if you’re going to be able to make the payments; however, with risk comes reward.

Filed under: Jake Roark • All-Around High School Students • Meet the Winner