ST. GEORGE —Six high school seniors from the Washington County School District were presented with Good Citizens Awards on Tuesday by the Daughters of the American Revolution Color Country Chapter. The winning teens were feted with a luncheon held at the American Legion Hall of St. George.
Being deemed a good citizen by the DAR is no minor feat.
The organization says its award-winners must be dependable, honest, punctual and service-oriented. They should also display leadership qualities and demonstrate patriotism.
The half-dozen local teens who won include Olivia Jenkins from Snow Canyon High School, Benjamin Haws from Crimson Cliffs High School, Tacey Johnson from Enterprise High School, Hailey Martin from Hurricane High School, Brooke Mizukawa from Desert Hills High School and Terry Musser from Water Canyon High School.
Jenkins was honored further, taking top honors for her essay exploring the question, “How do the qualities of good citizens help support our nation?” In a surprise announcement, it was also revealed that her essay took first place at the state level. It will next be judged at the division level, where the winning author will be presented with a $3,000 scholarship.
Jenkins, who is applying to the United States Military Academy at West Point, plans to help support the country after high school through service in the U.S. Army.
Jenkin’s parents said they are proud of their daughter but not surprised by her achievements.
“She’s been a hard worker her whole life. She’s blazed the trail for all of us, for many years,” her dad Colby Jenkins said.
West Point holds a place in the heart of another award winner, Hailey Martin, because her older sister is currently in attendance there.
“I look up to her a ton, and she’s always just out doing good and serving others,” she said. “She’s definitely a big inspiration to me.”
Water Canyon is on a winning streak
With her parents divorced, Musser said she divides her time between living with her mother, whose home is on the Arizona side of the border, and her father’s home in Hildale. Despite her dual-state residence, it’s only a two-minute drive between the two houses.
Musser said she’s seen a revolution in her peers’ collective mindset in her time at the high school.
“Oh my goodness. It has grown so intensely, it’s like rocket-craziness,” she said. “Like, this year I’ve been student body president and I have seen students go from, ‘Oh, I’m just a kid in the back of class that is just on the roster in my grade to, ‘Oh, I’m doing all these really cool things.’ It’s just super-cool to see.”
With class almost over, Musser will head this fall to Southern Utah University in Cedar City.
“So I have my whole life basically planned out,” she said. “I’m going to get my fine arts degree to become a college art professor. Their whole foundation is on making teachers … and that’s why I chose that place.”
With graduation in sight, Musser’s fellow Good Citizens are headed for the various places they have chosen, including Haws, who will undertake a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints before college; Johnson, who will attend Utah Tech University, formerly Dixie State University; and Martin, who hopes to attend Brigham Young University in Provo.
Mizukawa graduated early and is concurrently enrolled at Dixie State University, where she’s already living on campus. She was heavily involved in theater at Desert Hills and is looking forward to auditioning for Dixie State’s Raging Red musical theater program in April.
“We are very proud of her, of the the things that she chooses to stand for and for the things she’s accomplished,” her father Todd Mizukawa said. “She did not do that with any encouragement from us. She actually did this on her own.”
Since Daughters of the American Revolution is a women-led organization, Mizukawa opted to write an essay about the challenges of being a female and how to overcome them “and how to put a stop to inequality and how to create equity with the genders.”
She said she’s lucky to have grown up with a mother who provides a stellar example of female empowerment.
“Wow, she is my biggest role model as a strong female,” she said.
Given her theater background, she was undaunted by heading to the front of the American Legion Hall to be recognized along with her fellow Good Citizens Award winners.
“I’m am very very very not shy,” she said. “I’m a huge extrovert, so I’m not shy about going on stage and performing.”
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