Discus Award Winner
Winners Gallery
PHOTOS
VIDEOS
Kathryn "KC" Shonk
12th Grade, MI
ATTRIBUTES
Academics
Time Management. I dance while I drive, I do homework in my sleep and I golf while I am dancing. All 3 of the areas I have chosen to discuss are interrelated—they have to be or I would never excel at any. In high school, 2 of my 5 classes are AP (physics and calculus) and I am attending the local community college—dual enrolled to gain college credit and experience in classes I would need in college (engineering) that require software knowledge that we do not have access to in my high school. My college GPA is a 4.0 and my high school GPA is an unweighted 3.75. I get all of my work done; teachers like me; I give back to the school and I tutor in math and supervise the tutoring program for the middle-schoolers. Big deal? It’s work.
Community Service
Now let’s start layering on everything else. As extracurricular activity, I am in NHS and created, orchestrated a fund-raiser and delivered funds to a student who lost her hand in a car accident on her way to our homecoming dance last year. I also participate in several fund-raising events and campaigns through school: Muscular Dystrophy, Leukemia Foundation, Humane Society Drive, and Pennies for Patients, to name a few. I also just completed the choreography for our high school production of A Christmas Carol (with “non-dancers”) as a community service activity for National Honor Society. It was very time consuming as none of the actors/actresses were dancers and there were 3 very intricate scenes with significant movement. The cast was responsive and worked very hard--most memorable.
Athletics
In my spare time, I dance at least 20 hours per week and am the reigning Hall of Fame Senior Solo Champion. Competing takes time, but I also assist our artistic director when she choreographs at other studios which requires hours of study and training. So I dance, compete in workshops and company competitions, and in a few weeks we will be into full swing of our senior season—which just happens to be the same time I start golf with the high school varsity golf team—the boys team, as we do not have a girls team. Now this year, as I intend to dance and pursue a degree in Naval Architecture/Marine Engineering which is a dual degree program , I have to audition at the colleges to which I am applying. I can manage time in the quantum mechanics sense! I love my life.
