Three students from Falcon School District 49 earned awards in various areas of study.Kiana HarkemaFalcon High School 10th-grade student, Kiana Harkema, will be awarded a Colorado Aspirations in Computing award in April from the National Center for Women and Information Technology. She said her teacher, Thomas Russell, nominated her for the award.According to the NCWIT website, the Aspirations award recipients were chosen for their aptitude and interest in IT and computing, leadership ability, academic history and plans for post-secondary education.ìI entered category spreadsheet applications for the Future Business Leaders of America,î Harkema said. ìI qualified for state in that. The state competition was held in Vail, and they basically shut down the whole village to let us compete. It is a really prestigious award and a great way to inspire other young women who are interested in technology.îHarkema said she is trying to be a well-rounded technology student because it presents a good way to get involved in the community.Her future career could focus on law or cybersecurity, she said.Delaney HensleyFalcon Middle School eighth-grade student, Delaney Hensley, said her photographic entry in the Scholastics Art and Writing awards contest was judged against 5,000 other middle and high school projects statewide. The judges chose her entry as a Gold Key winner at the state level, and her piece will advance to the national competition, she said.ìWe had a project where we had to take pictures and edit them in our own special way,î Hensley said. ìOne project was about super heroes and that is the picture we used. It is a mysterious picture, with half of the picture done in pencil and the other side is a burst of a rainbow.îHensley said she never thought her photo would be more than a class assignment. ìIt is really cool that it happened,î she said. ìI am kind of scared because I never knew that it would be that big.îNational winners will be announced March 16.Connor ThomasSand Creek High School 12th-grade student, Connor Thomas, was awarded a scholarship to the music school at Colorado State University Pueblo in the amount of $11,000. Thomas auditioned by playing his saxophone, and he will attend CSU in Pueblo this fall.ìI have been in band since sixth grade,î Thomas said. ìI started on the saxophone at Horizon Middle School. When I went to Sand Creek, I got private lessons. I started to learn different instruments like the baritone, clarinet, flute and now I am learning the violin.îThomas said he has always wanted to perform for a living, but to be practical about his future, he will attend college to become a music teacher.Thomas is a member of the Sand Creek orchestra, in addition to the jazz, concert and marching bands.
