Mount Si High School seniors Sarah Berger, Abigail Gardner, Isabella Mudd, Dylan Schade were named students of the quarter by the Rotary Club of The Snoqualmie Valley.
Each quarter, the Rotary chooses four MSHS seniors, nominated by high school staff, who best exemplify the Rotary motto — “service above self.”
The students are judged on their leadership in and out of school, good citizenship, academic achievement and community service involvement. Learn more about the four nominees from those who nominated them below:
Sarah Berger (nominated by Joe Dockery):
“Not only does Sarah have an outstanding work ethic, but she is incredibly patient and cares deeply about the animals that she works with. She has demonstrated a clear understanding of what it takes to train a challenging horse through her work with Cricket, a three year old rescue horse, and Hodie, a standard donkey.
Her ability to build trusting relationships and develop a strong connection with the animals she works with is something I admire about her.
As a freshman, Sarah’s photography stood head and shoulders above her classmates in both technical skill and composition. Over the last four years she has turned her passion for photography into a successful business.
Sarah has worked hard to balance working a part time job as a stable hand at multiple barns, her photography business and maintaining a 3.8 grade point average. She has earned straight A’s in Digital Media and been selected as the spotlight student of the quarter. Sarah is also a dedicated peer tutor in the Life Skills program at Mount Si.”
Abigail Gardner (nominated by Elayne Grueber):
“Abigail is president of the National Honor Society and captain of her soccer team. She is always willing to help out, has a positive attitude and is always willing to jump in and help whenever and wherever necessary. She tutors and babysits for free to help families in the community.”
Isabella Mudd (nominated by Bill Leather):
“Bella exudes servant leadership on a daily basis. She goes out of her way and above and beyond to make sure our students are taken care of. Bella also took a lead role in organizing student volunteers for the Washington Music Educator Association Eastshore Solo & Ensemble festival that we hosted in January. The student leaders made this event a success due to Bella’s incredible leadership.
Bella is the first to arrive and last to leave at our events. She stays late to help organize and goes out of her way to make sure the program has what it needs to be successful.
Bella is a dedicated student, hard-working, and strives to give her best in all areas of school. She is a musical leader in our ensembles, setting the bar of excellence high for herself and others.
Bella dedicates countless hours to the music program outside of the school day (such as the solo & ensemble event she helps organize) in order to help the program and our students be successful. These are all “above and beyond” hours of community service because she sees the value in dedicating time to help others be the best versions of themselves.”
Dylan Schade (nominated by Joe Dockery):
“What sets Dylan apart from other students is his leadership and commitment to serving others.
As a junior Dylan started the Student Connection mentoring program in our school district, recruiting 15 volunteer tutors and personally tutoring a student through the pandemic. He has taken the leadership, networking and time management skills from this process to produce successful staff training to his coworkers at the pool. The bottom line is that you can always count on Dylan diving in to give a helping hand when you need someone.
Dylan has spent many hours tutoring others and volunteering through Key Club. In fact, this winter when we needed an extra hand for the Giving Tree, he was one of the first people to volunteer.
Dylan’s ability to balance working a part time job as a swim instructor/lifeguard, community service and a rigorous academic schedule has been impressive to watch. He has maintained a 3.9 GPA while challenging himself with multiple AP classes.
As a student Dylan consistently demonstrated his ability to produce A-level projects even when that required him to create his own pathway into 3D modeling.
He is an Adobe Certified Associate and earned the prestigious 1st Quarter Spotlight Award. He has that combination of grit and creativity that it takes to push through to those innovations that have the potential to make a difference.”
