Five outstanding students at Hillcrest, Alta, Brighton high schools were among the 14 stellar Utah students who captured  category awards in the 54^th annual Sterling Scholar Awards Program. 

The winners were announced during a Tuesday, March 10, 2015 ceremony at the LDS Conference Center, 60 W. North Temple.  

Hillcrest led all Utah schools with three winners. 

Canyons District has a tie to another winner, as well. Bingham High’s Stephanie Jencks, who received the Douglas F. Bates Community Service Award, is enrolled in the cosmetology program at the Canyons Technical Education Center. She also serves as President of the CTEC SKillsUSA Chapter.

In all, 22 students from CSD’s traditional comprehensive high schools made the finals in the prestigious competition sponsored by KSL and the Deseret News. The final round of judging was Tuesday, Feb. 24 at Corner Canyon High. 

The winning students, their schools and the categories are:

• Bovey Rao, Hillcrest – Math
• Brandon Cui, Hillcrest – Science
• Samantha Bemis, Hillcrest – Speech/Theater/Forensics
• Sarah Farnsworth, Alta – Social Science
• Anna Park, Brighton – Visual Arts

Other categories include Business and Marketing, Computer Technology, Dance, English, Family and Consumer Science, Instrumental Music, Skilled and Technical Sciences, Vocal Performance, and World Languages.

Two other awards – the General Sterling Scholar Winne and the Philo T. Farnsworth Governor’s Award – also were presented during the ceremony.

The much sought-after awards “publicly recognize and encourage the pursuit of excellence in scholarship, leadership and citizenship of high school seniors in the state of Utah,” according to the Sterling Scholar website.