24 Spokane County high school scholars honored with checks for academic excellence

Jeremy Ryan plays five musical instruments: piano, flute, piccolo, mallet percussion and the accordion. He composed a piece, “Tension,” in the eighth grade that was performed by his school band.

But the $4,000 check he collected Monday night at the annual Spokane Scholars Foundation banquet wasn’t for music. It was for math. He maxed out of calculus classes offered by Medical Lake High School, so he took Advanced Placement Calculus BC online when he was a junior.

“He’s very modest. You can’t get much of a feel for his accomplishments by talking to him because he won’t tell you he scored extremely high on every math test he ever took,” said his dad, Paul Ryan, who sat next to his son at the banquet.

Jeremy Ryan was one of 143 high school seniors honored at the event at the Spokane Convention Center. Administrators and teachers at each high school in Spokane County picked one scholar from their school in each of six categories: English, fine arts, math, science, social studies and world language. The top four as selected by three-member foundation committees won grants from $1,000 to $4,000.

Most have a drive and love for learning that goes beyond the topics for which they were honored.

“It’s amazing how much they work,” said Louis Meuler, who sat next to his daughter, Madison Meuler, a Lewis and Clark honoree for English. “It’s a lot of internal self-drive that I don’t think a parent could instill in them.”

Before her sophomore year, Jordan Willson asked her parents if she could move from her home in Livingston, Montana, to live with her aunt and uncle in Spokane Valley. She wanted to attend a more rigorous high school with more opportunities in music.

Her mom, Colleen Willson, who attended the banquet with her daughter, said she trusted her to make the right decision.

Monday night, Jordan represented her school, University High School, in the fine arts category. She plays alto saxophone and flute, but she probably won’t pursue music as a career when she starts at the University of Idaho.

“I’m not going to study it in college, but I also want it to be part of my life,” she said. Instead, she’s considering a career in journalism.

Juyun Phang, of Gonzaga Prep, was selected for a $3,000 grant for world languages. She was born in South Korea but moved to Spokane when she was 3 with her parents, who met at Whitworth University as exchange students.

Phang, who is fluent in Korean, studies Latin at Gonzaga Prep and hopes to pursue a minor in the language along with a major in women’s studies.

“It was less about learning the language and more about learning a history,” she said, adding that a strong Latin education would make it easier for her to learn other languages still in use.

Fourteen colleges and universities in the region match the grants for a Spokane Scholar’s first year, including Eastern Washington University, Whitworth University, Gonzaga University, Spokane Community College and Spokane Falls Community College, Washington State University and the University of Washington. According to the Spokane Scholars Foundation, the University of Washington is the overwhelming choice of grant recipients, with 63 choosing the Seattle school in the program’s past 23 years. Stanford University and Whitworth University are tied for second, with 20 grant recipients apiece attending.

As for Jeremy Ryan, of Medical Lake, he plans to pursue computer engineering at Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering in Massachusetts, a school with fewer students than his high school. And he’ll continue playing music.

“Olin is small and has limited opportunities, but they have an orchestra,” he said.

The 2016 Spokane Scholars are:

English

Collin Cremers, St. George’s School, $4,000 grant

Kathyrn Grossmann, Mt. Spokane High School, $3,000 grant

Maggie Young, Central Valley High School, $2,000 grant

Naomi McQuary, Gonzaga Preparatory School, $1,000 grant

Fine Arts

Kyle Thiessen, Lewis and Clark High School, $4,000 grant

Malinda Wagstaff, St. George’s School, $3,000 grant

Isabel Morales, East Valley High School, $2,000 grant

Emily McFarland, Gonzaga Preparatory School, $1,000 grant

Math

Jeremy Ryan, Medical Lake High School, $4,000 grant

Collin Dunn, Central Valley High School, $3,000 grant

Xiaoman “Jerry” Chu, St. George’s School, $2,000 grant

Shogo Starr, Cheney High School, $1,000 grant

Science

Joshua Jenkins, Central Valley High School, $4,000 grant

Hailey Lister, Lewis and Clark High School, $3,000 grant

Abigail Colestock, North Central High School, $2,000 grant

Jackson Cooper, Gonzaga Preparatory School, $1,000 grant

Social Studies

Blythe Irwin, Lewis and Clark High School, $4,000 grant

Benjamin Magruder, University High School, $3,000 grant

Bryce Pointer, East Valley High School, $2,000 grant

Samantha Sentenn, Gonzaga Preparatory School, $1,000 grant

World Languages

Nicholas Lin, Lewis and Clark High School, $4,000 grant

Juyun Phang, Gonzaga Preparatory School, $3,000 grant

Abby Horton, Central Valley High School, $2,000 grant

Catherine Cable, The Oaks Christian Academy, $1,000 grant