DESERET NEWS - KSL STERLING SCHOLAR AWARDS 2013 STUDENT ENTRY FORM

Name Of Nominee: Meranda Smith School: Jordan Category: Family & Consumer Sciences

American College Testing (ACT) English: 25 Math: 25 Reading: 31 Sci./Reasoning: 26 Composite: 27

Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) Reading: Mathematics: Writing:

Supporting Attachment - Transcript

Supporting Attachment - Letter of Recommendation

Tom Sherwood

Jordan nigh School

95 East Beetdigger Boulevard Sandy, Utah 84070 Phone: (801) 826-6200 Fax (801) 826-6209

Principal

Steven Bailey Jan Hansen Darrell Jensen

Assistant Principals

Kelcey Kemp
Administrative Intern

I have known Meranda Smith for the last five years in my capacity as a teacher at Eastmont Middle School and currently at Jordan High School. Meranda is one of those students whose integrity and dedication to hard work shines above others. As a student Meranda has been able to accept responsibilities that require time management to accomplish. Meranda is continually willing to help those students around her who may notfully understand the concepts being taught. The unique way that Meranda has of bringing concepts to her peers level of understanding has set her apart from others in the classroom. Meranda has excelled academically since entering middle school. She has been on the honor roll since ih grade and maintained a 3.989 grade point average. All of this was done while being 9nthe~ennis team at Jordan High School and involved with Feel-A. Ms. Smith has takenhQnor's classesandl~o advanced placement classes while attending Jordan High. Meranda passed both ac\vancedpla,c'epient tests and ranked in thtoptenpercept on the ACT PI:llltest in bothxeading ~ndpiatll: ~;'~ipit~~.~niaepstands how imp,prt,ntan e~y~~ti9nis'~rd does her best toproadenher leilrning tl1roug9the:cl~f~6ss~e}~ enrolled in.' to"
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iii,after scll00l education programs tvnelp teach vO,cabylary ami readipgskills'to stud~n~s'~tSardy ElementarY. While at the elementary school, Meral1c1ahad the opportunity to gradeBapers:,aryd?etterund~r~tand the life of a teacher ona,dail)' basis. Meranda's goal of becoming a Family~ndSQhSUmer Science educator was more solidified duri.ngthjs.~xper.ins? throug/1 seeing!he joy()nthe.ch21o!en:;~ faceswnen they succeeded. Ms. Smjth~a~be~n abletoe~peri~ncethe colitent atea ofF ACS through the classes that she has been enrolled in since 1l1i.1?lliSch601f!.1]'C1 th~" relationships tllatshe has built with the teachers in the Family and .consumer Science pepartnl.ep.t.,,, . Meranda is currently serving as th~president of Family Career Community Leaders ~fAmieri2a which is the Career and Technical Student Organization associated with Family and Consumef Science. Ms. Smith has learned many great leadership skills through taking charge of the weekly club meetings and delegation to her peers. Meranda understands that she needs to lead by example and attend and participate in club activities and service projects. Meranda is very friendly and always has a smile. She willingly accepts tasks that are assigned her and does her best in completing them. Meranda has many skills and great potential. As she dedicates herself to learning and improving Meranda will be a great asset to the field of Family and Consumer Science as an educator.

i'> \\ MS"mitl1,r~~p~~i~ipat~d

SinC7J~
Natalie Hancock 801-826-6376 Family & Consumer Sciences Jordan High School

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~ CANYONS
School District

In 20 words or less, list up to six activities, honors and awards relating to your category. 1. President and Member of FCCLA 2. Job shadowed for an event planner at Thanksgiving Point 3. Received a CTE Skills Certificate for Adult Roles 4. Received a CTE Skills Certificate for Clothing 2 5. Received a CTE Skills Certificate for Foods 2 6. Received a CTE Skills Certificate for Interior Design Choose one of the activities, honors or awards, describe it briefly and explain why it was meaningful to you. What did you learn and what did you accomplish? Being FCCLA President has been a great learning opportunity. Im still learning the ends and outs of FCCLA, because although I had been associated with FCCLA since I was a sophomore, I didnt officially become a member until this year. Ive been given a lot of responsibility by being in charge of eleven other officers, planning meetings and activities, and then putting on those activities while making sure the other officers are also doing their assigned responsibilities. The trust that the FCCLA advisers have given me has made me put my best effort and time into this position. Through this opportunity, I've also learned to be more organized, dependable, and willing to help others. The FCCLA officers, myself included, have accomplished putting on activities every month including a school farmer's market, numerous lunch activities, ice skating, service projects, and a dinner event to introduce Star Events. Supporting Attachment - Category Description

Supporting Attachment - Category Description

List up to six activities, honors and awards that relate to the leadership qualifications. 1. Captain of the Jordan High School Girl's Tennis Team 2. FCCLA President of Jordan High School 3. Member of National Honor Society 4. Member of a Breast Cancer Awareness Committee 5. MVP of the Jordan High Girl's Tennis Team 6. Member of National Junior Honor Society Choose one of the activities, honors or awards that relate to the leadership qualification and describe it briefly. I had been a part of the Jordan High Girl's Tennis Team since my freshman year, so the opportunity to be a team captain was something I looked forward to. However, it was a lot of work and extra time. The two other captains and I spent countless hours planning team bonding activities, picking our uniforms, putting fundraisers together, assigning treat duty, running drills in the absence of a coach, and improving our own skills on the tennis court on top of all the other school activities we had. However, all the work paid off when the whole varsity tennis team made it to state, which hadn't happened in over a decade. The girls on the team became best friends over the

course of only a few short month season, and those friendships have lasted and hopefully will continue to do so. Although I can't take credit for all the accomplishments of the team, I love that I had the opportunity to be a part of it even if I spent a lot of the time behind the scenes. Supporting Attachment - Leadership Description

Supporting Attachment - Leadership Description

ed

e a letter to you to let you kno

ha a

. 'Iege'

e e at Jordan. Whether it was your ever prese one

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clean up, you definitely

helped ma e

e earn. And I probably got sunburned a 10 less beca Over remember Id o ese years you have endured many nicknames from I think an appropria e ic a e al a . s
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he most is "Mermanda."However, ei

e -example.'1 I am so thankful that you are living your life in such a er on or off the court. You were always on time to practice, yo
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. g our personal life get dragged on to the court like so many ~e eep hings neat and tidy( yes I already mentioned

her

it but you can tell

o are an excellent student as well. In essence you are the true de n'

cap ain you served the team very well. I witl forever be mindful of how many - - e co e e as

during a drill, if somebody has enough water for their match and most importa ashed their hands before eating team dinner. I most likely would never ha e

hese things in the pre Meranda era. In

r e there

can be many regrets. We wish we would have said hi to people more

en.
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a e said something differently ave gone a different direction.

in certain situations. Or simply that things out of our con

In sports we often wish that we could have made a few decisio

e en I in a match. That we would have started at a younger age or simply that we would have been essed ith a few more wins. While those things would always be nice to have, they are not the things in it. My blessing year after year is to be able

I 'mately matter in this life or the next. The true blessing is to have and enjoy the positive ela ionships that we find in life through our participation
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kids like you. My only regret is that you couldn't stay longer. I look forward to hearing about your future endeavors. I know that you will be successful in life

a d that I will always be proud to say I knew her when she was on my team.

List up to six activities, honors or awards that relate to the qualifications for Community Service and/or Citizenship. 1. Making and donating suckers to The Festival of Trees which donates proceeds to Primary Children's Hospital 2. Volunteering at an after school program to help struggling students with reading, spelling, and vocabulary at Sandy Elementary 3. Tying fleece blankets to donate to low income families 4. Cooking nutritious, freezable breakfast meals for young families 5. Making wooden toy cars for children in third world countries 6. Sewing quilts for patients at Primary Children's Hospital Choose one of the activities, honors or awards that relate to the Community Service/ Citizenship qualification and describe it briefly. Making Suckers for the Festival of Trees was an after school service project for FCCLA done at Jordan High School. We made jolly rancher suckers to donate to the Festival of Trees which sells baked goods and donates the proceeds to Primary Children's Hospital. I enjoyed this service project, because of how excited everyone got about which flavors to make and which wrapping to use. They got into the spirit of the holidays and I was proud to be able to say I helped plan and prepare this event. In all, we made 145 suckers to donate. Supporting Attachment - Community Service / Citizenship Description

Supporting Attachment - Community Service / Citizenship Description

Describe two or three unique things about yourself and relate them to your category. If possible, include challenges you have overcome and describe any distinctive experiences that have affected you. Ive always been independent and self reliant. I didnt like relying on other people to get things done and I felt it was a waste to have someone do things that I could do myself. This relates to my interest in Family and Consumer Science, because I feel that this category teaches and encourages people to do things themselves. I think I developed these personality traits when my parents divorced. I lived most of the time at my dads house, but in the absence of a mother I had to learn how to do a lot of things on my own. This continued when I was at my moms house, because she was a very good example of what to be. She never really took care of her children, so I learned to take care of myself. Other unique qualities I have are Im creative and thrifty. This relates to Family and Consumer Science, because it promotes creativity and thriftiness especially with the developing popularity of blogs and pinterest and the push for do-it-yourself projects. Ive always liked creating or modifying things for myself which admittedly has turned out some times better than others. The thriftiness has probably been the most beneficial to my family. Ive always been a bargain shopper, but more recently Ive gotten into couponing. My family finds coupons intimidating, I, although it may sound a bit odd, get a rush from clipping coupons and seeing how much money I save.

How do you think your involvment in this category will enrich your life? The Family and Consumer Science category has already enriched my life by helping me become a better, more rounded person through the classes Ive taken and will continue to enrich my life through my continued education and experiences. By the end of my senior year, I will have taken every FACS class offered at my school at the base level or higher. So far Ive learned how to design a fashionable yet functional room, which will help me furnish my own future home; how to better communicate with people, which will help me be a better employee, spouse, and mother; how to handle finances efficiently, which will help me save smartly and stay out of debt; how to modify and make my own clothes, which has and will allow me to fit clothing to my own taste and body type; and finally Ive learned how to have a balance diet, which will help me to make smart choices and habits for my family. In the future, the Family and Consumer Science category will help me reach my goal of becoming a FACS teacher which will be a way to give back to my community through the skills Ive obtained and the ones I will obtain.

Supporting Attachment - Document

Interpersonal Communication Project

By: Meranda Smith
Jordan High School 1st period

Planning Process Sheet

The planning process helped me organize my thoughts and figure out what I wanted to do to communicate better. It allowed me to think over exactly what I wanted to get out of this project, and execute that plan in a very thought out way. I was also able to stay on track and keep my focus throughout the two weeks. My concerns were my brother and I werent listening to each other, because of distractions. Then when there was communication, we didn't understand each other. Therefore, my goal was to figure out a way that we could meet halfway and communicate better. By using the planning process, I was able to accomplish the goal I had set in the time I had wanted. I'm satisfied with the results I got, and the plan made things easy to decide what I wanted and then accomplish it efficiently. After setting my goal, I decided to focus on I messages, reflective listening, clear messages, body language, and timing. Then I set my two weeks from December 28, 2011 to January 11, 2012. Then we acted on what we had decided to do. We used clear communication and I messages when trying to talk to the other person, so that nothing would be misunderstood. Then we became conscious of the others schedule. Then we used reflective listening skills and body language to show the other person that we were understanding as well as paying attention. The planning process helped simplify the process and help me put my thoughts in order. I was able to focus on exactly what I wanted to, so that my goal could be accomplished.

Summary
I decided to use my brother, who is 14 years old, as my partner in this communication project. We've always had a little bit of a hard time communicating effectively. Whether it was just not listening at all, because the interest wasn't there or misinterpretations occurred. Regardless of the reason, communication was just difficult between us. Therefore, the positive communication techniques I began with were "I" messages, clear communication, and reflective listening. These techniques helped the communication between us, but I quickly realized that adding body language and timing was necessary. It becomes very difficult to have reflective listening when you're busy with other things. It was also difficult to have clear communication when the body language showed that listening wasn't occurring. Adding those extra two communication techniques made using the other three a lot easier, and the project in general more effective. The techniques worked well. "I" messages were especially effective, because it took away the chance of blaming or taking offense. They are also very direct which helped with the clear communication and timing. In order for any communication to occur, time has to be given to the other person. There were obviously some times that were better than others, but keeping it short and simple made the communication easier. Reflective listening was really important, because I knew that we both tended to let the other person talk, yet we heard nothing the other person said. Reflective listening helped the communication actually be received and returned. I tied this in with body language, because reflective listening was easier with both parties giving their full attention. I tend to be a very sarcastic person, so clear communication has never been one of my strong

characteristics. It was the hardest technique to work on, but that helped me to keep the techniques on my mind each time I verbally communicated. This project really did improve our relationship. We were able to actually speak to each other and understand one another. The technique that helped the most with this improvement was the timing. It made both of us conscious of the other's schedule, which in turn helped show what was important to the other. When we made time for each other, we were able to communicate well and get to know each other better. My communication skills were strengthened mainly by being more conscious of the negative communication that I did use. I was able to make a habit of evaluating how I communicated, and then make adjustments as I went. I also began to think about what I was about to say, and if it was a positive technique or negative. Through this, I changed the negative techniques I used into positive communication techniques. This communication project provided opportunities for me to develop personally, and it helped me to prepare for adulthood. I'll have a family of my own one day, and knowing how to communicate in positive ways will help strengthen my relationships with them.

Bibliography http://www.tricounty.k12.mn.us/activities/fccla/Planning_Process_ In_Depth_Instructions.pdf

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Other Attachments and Links

Category Media Url Url Url Name Meranda Sterling Scholar.wmv Media Document Image Description Media A video about how involved FACS is in our lives Projects I've done in different FACS classes. Pictures from lessons I've learned outside of a classroom.
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