Notable Deer Park grad channels passion into excellence
Savana Sitton is one of those students who loves school.
Now about to graduate from Deer Park High School with a 3.96 grade-point average, she is described by senior class counselor Catherine Oviatt as a person with “a passion for learning like I have never seen before.”
In sixth grade, Sitton was placed in a math class one year above grade level, which she loved. But in her senior year she found herself with no math classes left to take. Happily, an independent study was arranged for her through Central Washington University, so she has been able to take calculus 2 this year.
“I really do love math and science,” said Sitton, 18, “especially chemistry and biology, but surprisingly, physics isn’t something I really care for.”
Self-described as competitive in all things – “though I like to believe I have good sportsmanship” – Sitton has thrown herself into a variety of school activities. She has lettered three times in soccer and basketball, twice in track, and will earn a letter in tennis this year.
As a member of Key Club she organized the Seventh Grade Spikes Spring Service Project in which 180 seventh-graders provided community services such as repainting park benches and washing windows at senior centers. She recently returned from the National DECA Conference in Orlando, where she had leadership training.
Sitton is senior class president and a member of the National Honor Society, and she has been active with LINK Crew, a group which helps freshmen transition to high school.
In the community, she volunteers as a dog walker at the Spokane Humane Society.
“I have a passion and love for animals,” she said.
She plans to study veterinary medicine when she attends Washington State University this fall, where she has also been accepted into Honors College, and has applied for every scholarship she might be eligible for (15 by her count).
Long term, she would like to work in South America with people whose cultures are dependent on livestock or perhaps become a zoological veterinarian in the Amazon region.
She credits her mother, Effie Dean, head of student services at the Reardan School District, as the biggest influence in her life. “She taught me to do the best I can. If there’s adversity, don’t just sit there. Do something about it. I am blessed.”
Devout in her faith, Sitton attends youth group at Deer Park’s Crossover Church on Wednesdays and worships on Sundays at Life Center Church in Spokane. With her mother she went on two missions with Life Center Church to Mexico, where they helped establish vacation Bible school and build relationships with the population in Penasco. This month she will travel to Nicaragua to help put up fencing at an orphanage.
“I do believe God is a big influence in my life,” Sitton said. “There is a plan for me and it is being shown to me step by step.”