By Hal Levy, Shore Line Newspapers
Special to MaxPreps.com
The Connecticut High School Coaches Association has awarded scholarships to seven outstanding high school seniors from across the state.
The selection process is arduous. Approximately 250 senior student-athletes submitted initial applications for the awards. A CHSCA committee narrowed the field to 45 boys and 45 girls, then narrowed it again.
At that point, the final selections were in the hands of a group of administrators from across the state with the coaches not having any final input.
A brief look at the seven winners, who include three people ranked first in their class, another ranked second and another ranked third.
Kim Ashayeri ranks first in her class of 663 seniors at Danbury High School. A captain of the indoor and outdoor track teams, she has won eight varsity letters in track, soccer and with the boys’ swimming and diving team.
She has won sportsmanship awards as well as being a scholar-athlete and a Best in Track award winner. She has volunteered in Unified Sports, is a member of the National Honor Society and is a National Merit Scholarship Commended Scholar. A class treasurer, she is a member of the DECA state executive council, is a CAPT scholar, has been invited to speak before Congress, and was selected as the keynote speaker for the Student Leadership Conference. She has won a variety of awards including the Boehringer Ingelheim Scientific Scholar, Columbia Book Award and Western Connecticut State University President’s Scholarship.
Known for her humanitarian efforts, she has concentrated on raising funds and awareness for Darfur. She speaks of the hard work and discipline she has learned through both athletic and academics and knows those qualities will help her in the future, which begins in the fall as a freshman at Yale.
Stephanie Bendtsen ranks first in her senior class of 230 at Wolcott High School. A member of the track and cross country teams for three years, she also is a four-year cheerleader and captained all three this year. She is president of the National Honor Society and the Science National Honor Society and is the recipient of an RPI Medal Award/Scholarship.
She won the Smith Book Award, was a Wendy’s High School Heisman state finalist and was 13th in the national cheerleader of the year scholarship competition. She is a two-time all-state cheerleader, a three-time MVP in cross country where she was all conference and earned a best in track award. She was the Naugatuck Valley League outstanding senior cheerleader this past year.
She is proud of the record she has accumulated in the classroom, which she attributes to dedication and hard work.
She has volunteered for a number of causes ranging from Special Olympics to the homeless.
In the fall, she will matriculate to the University of Connecticut to begin study in the field of bio-medical engineering.
Patrick Carey has been a three-sport captain in soccer, basketball and volleyball at Enfield High School. He was an NCCC all-star in soccer and the team MVP in volleyball.
The highlight of his athletic career was Enfield’s advancement to the finals of the Class M state volleyball tournament, a step further than any Enfield team had ever been.
Secretary of the National Honor Society and Vice President of his class, he ranks seventh in a class of 200. He has been honored in society studies and language and is the winner of the St. Michaels Book Award. A Boys’ State delegate, he was a youth leadership conference delegate and participated in an engineering program at UConn.
He plans to attend the University of Connecticut in the fall to major in finance and play with the club volleyball program.
Alyssa Carreau ranks third in her class of 270 at Rockville High School, where she played soccer and tennis, captaining not only the Rockville soccer team but also the premier team of the United Soccer Alliance in Suffield. She is an all-CCC East performer in both soccer and tennis.
Vice President of the Spanish Club, and a two-year chair of Peer Advocates, she is one of three student members of the Vernon Drug and Alcohol Prevention Council. A high honors student in every quarter in high school, she was one of two Rockville students chosen to attend the Junior Science and Humanities Symposium at UConn.
She had worked as a Peer Minister, coached local youth soccer teams and been involved in projects ranging from restoring an old church to cooking in a homeless shelter.
A piano player for about seven years, she is proud of her academic record and the hard work it reflects and says, “It is nice to know that all those late study nights have paid off.”
They will pay off more in the fall when she attends the College of the Holy Cross, where she plans to play club soccer and tennis.
Stephanie Kearns ranks first in her class of 139 at Housatonic Valley Regional High School. A four-year member of the track and cross country teams, she captains both and has captained cross country for three years now. She is a three-time cross country all-stater and Berkshire League all-star.
She has been class council president for three years and is the Band President. She plays the flute and piccolo and made it into the all-state band this year. She was the most valuable contributer to the concert band and is a Berkshire League band member.
She has won the Superintendent’s Award, and the Bausch and Lomb honorary science award. She has worked as a Sunday School teacher and church lector.
She is proud of her status as class valedictorian and is honored that her many hours of classroom work have been recognized.
She will attend Merrimack College next fall to major in Civil engineering.
Adam Mortillaro has been a two-year cross country captain and has participated in outdoor track and baseball at Northwest Catholic. The school does not do class rankings, but his 4.19 grade point average would surely be near the top if it did.
A yearbook editor and a class vice president, he had won the Kodak Young Leaders Award and the Gettysburg history book award. An all-conference and all-state runner in cross country, he also was a four year member of the all-academic team. He has worked on the student newspaper and the Mock Trial team.
He professes a passion for politics and the system of electing our nation’s leaders and has served as an intern in the elections division of the Secretary of State’s office.
He plans to continue running in college, which he begins in the fall at Georgetown.
Robert Parise ranks second in his class of 240 at Suffield High School. He plays football, indoor and outdoor track and captained both the football and track teams.
Vice President of the Student Senate, he is a national merit semi-finals, has won the Harvard Book Award, the Rensselaer Medal and the Gettysburg Book Award and been a member of two newspaper’s all-academic teams in football and track.
He is a school record-holder in the 400-meter hurdles and is a dedicated ultimate frisbee player in the summer. In fact, his e-mail address is frisbeeguy1.
In the fall, he will be attending Princeton and is considering trying out for the football team.
