Personal Triumph

At Ranson Middle, Destiny Wade-Gilliard is all smiles. Walking down the hall between classes, she grins at classmates, waves hello and greets friends with hugs.

Charlotte-area teens win top national honors in Scholastic Art & Writing Awards.

To some, 14-year-old Jenna McGrath of Tega Cay may look out of place shouting orders to college-bound athletic specimens. But to Jenna, her coach and teammates in Charlotte Youth Rowing, perhaps the best youth rowing club in the Carolinas, she’s a fish in water.

20 at Hopewell High are inducted into club aimed at promoting role models.

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Maulik Sarin, an eighth-grader at Metrolina Regional Scholars Academy, was selected for the National Spanish Exam Global Citizen Scholarship.

Tiffany Adams, a junior at Davidson Day School, was one of 50 young women in the U.S. invited to attend a leadership training and mentorship program in Washington, D.C., April 1-4.

Independence High senior Shakira Warren advanced through the first two rounds of the state’s Poetry Out Loud competition at the Greensboro Public Library on March 16 but did not advance to the finals.

Providence Day kindergartner Emily Clark’s imagination and creativity have resulted in the kind of surprise she’ll remember for a long time.

Skylar McKee, a junior at Northwest School of the Arts, won a song composition contest at the Alternative Impulse III New Music Festival at Winthrop University. The contest was adjudicated by Dr. Daniel Weymouth of SUNY Stony Brook. Skylar entered a choral piece he composed. Skylar plays French horn in wind ensemble and made All-District Band on that instrument. He plans to attend college as a music composition major.

Ten students from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools were recently selected as winners in the first quarterly ceremony of the "Do the Right Thing" program, at Time Warner Cable Arena. These winners were nominated by teachers, principals, firefighters, police officers and members of the community:

Students participating in GenerationNation’s youth civic leadership program, Youth Voice Leadership Alliance, met N.C. Gov. Pat McCrory on Jan. 9, and had a policy dialogue with Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools Superintendent Heath Morrison.

10-year-old’s big day helped Humane Society

Charlotte Country Day upper school students Jaylin Cureton, Jessica Gregory, Jill Levinson, Jocelyn Purdie, Mandine Roubaud, Emma Sepkowitz, Julien Souffrant and Rachel Uri were selected to attend the recent Student Diversity Leadership Conference in Houston.

Charlotte Preparatory School students and their families collected seven boxes of supplies for U.S. soldiers serving overseas.

Mena Effat is getting a real-life class on business. The senior at East Mecklenburg High has her own restaurant: Menas Grill.

Phillip O. Berry Academy of Technology students Daniel Blackman, Yash Mori, Devon Gousby and Thong Nguyen won top prizes in the web development and graphic design competitions Oct. 11 at the N.C. State Fair.

A nine-member team of teens and young adults from the YMCA of Greater Charlotte will travel to Dakar, Senegal, in West Africa in November to explore literacy and education through service.

Angel Moten rappelled down a cliff in Australia recently, a trip that rewarded her strength and achievement in the face of some frightening challenges.

Covenant Day School graduate Lane Baker was one of only 21 recipients nationally to win a highly competitive National Latin Exam $1,000 scholarship.

Cole Rasenberger says he learned in second grade that thousands of acres of N.C. forests are destroyed daily by mills that make packaging paper for fast-food restaurants.

Ben Zino, 11, of Salisbury recently returned from an expedition in Montana after winning a spot on a traveling team in a National Geographic Young Explorers contest.

Sarah Hudson of Indian Trail has been named the Assistance League of Charlotte’s teen volunteer of the year for her commitment to the Mecklenburg County Teen Court program.

Lucas Godley says attending Arabic immersion program will 'help prepare me for possible service with federal government down the road.'

Four girls from Girl Scout Troop 3513 have earned their Silver Award, while four Boy Scouts in Troop 173 and one from Troop 9 earned their Eagle ranking.

Jenny Hausler, a sophomore at Providence High, and Alekhya Mallavarapu, a senior at Butler High, were recently awarded American Association of Teachers of German Study Trip Awards.

David Conlin, a seventh grade student at Providence Day, placed first at the Carolinas regional contest for the National History Bee March 22.

Seventh-grader Grant Goodman was elected vice president of the statewide N.C. Junior Beta Club at a February convention in Greensboro.

Michelle Ballasiotes, a 14-year-old Jay M. Robinson Middle student, was recently selected by the American Heart Association to attend a Town Hall Meeting at the State Health Director’s Conference in Raleigh.

At birth, Reagan Ford was diagnosed with Poland syndrome, a condition that caused three fingers on her right hand to not develop.