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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Academic Champions Awards Honor Students Who Excel In Academic Pursuits

Carla K. Johnson Staff writer

Andrew Richardson beat cancer during his sophomore year and still kept up a perfect grade point average.

“I felt it was my responsibility to do the best I could so, when I did beat it, I wouldn’t be behind in my studies,” Richardson said. “And I always knew I would beat it.”

Now a University High senior, Richardson was named Spokane County’s top mathematics scholar Thursday at the third annual Spokane Scholars Foundation awards banquet.

Richardson’s fight with Hodgkin’s disease impressed the judges as much as his perfect 800 score in math on the SAT. He spent 62 days in the hospital his sophomore year, undergoing chemotherapy, radiation and two surgeries.

The foundation gave Richardson and five other high school seniors $3,000 each.

The other winners were Erryn Leinbaugh of Gonzaga Prep for foreign language, Ara Walline of Mead High for English, Kathryn Temple of Central Valley High for social science, Russell Clifton of Central Valley High for fine arts and Jennifer DeNiro of St. George’s School for science.

More than 100 nominees for the awards, their teachers, principals and families attended the banquet.

Nobel laureate Leon Lederman, director emeritus of the Fermi National Accelerator Lab, somehow kept the crowd laughing while explaining particle physics, the Big Bang theory and the intellectual development of science from the Greeks to quarks.

“If you’re interested in science, work hard in all the other subjects,” he said. “The science will take care of itself.”

Spokane attorney Louis Rukavina, who created the foundation as a way to recognize students as much for their brain power as they are recognized for athletics, asked the students to return to Spokane after college.

“You are the people we count on to create jobs, not to fill them,” he said. “God didn’t give you your abilities to follow, but to lead.”

Doctors, attorneys, dentists and accountants are core contributors to the scholarship program.

High schools nominate their top students. College professors and professionals choose the winners based on grades, test scores, recommendations and extracurricular activities.

This year the foundation raised about $31,000 from individuals, companies and foundations, Rukavina said.

Richardson’s scholarship will help him with tuition at Western Washington University in Bellingham.

He wants to be a teacher like his father, Kent Richardson, who teaches history at University High.

“I’m not dead set on making a lot of money,” the 18-year-old said. His struggle with cancer changed his way of looking at the world.

“I appreciate the small things. I don’t get upset over minor incidents. It gave me a broader outlook.”