Sacred Heart Academy sophomore named Courier Journal Student of the Week
The votes for the Courier Journal Student of the Week are in, and the winner is Sydney Amshoff from Sacred Heart Academy.
Sydney exemplifies the Ursuline Core Values of reverence, service, leadership, and community by thinking deeply of others and putting a concern into action. She volunteers at Kosair for Kids. At their holiday party in 2022, she noticed that adaptive toys for children with special needs were not readily available, so the Kosair Kids with physical limitations were unable to experience the joy of playing with a new toy at Christmastime. Many popular toys are simply unusable unless altered to be adaptable, and adaptable versions of toys such as Tickle Me Elmo are three times more expensive to buy than their non-adaptive counterparts.
Sydney had discovered the problem and was determined to find a solution. She had also found the perfect idea for her sophomore capstone project, the International Baccalaureate MYP Personal Project. Empowered with a strong sense of creativity and collaboration, Sydney partnered with University of Louisville Speech-Language Pathology student Abbie Donway, who connected them with engineers at GE Appliances. From there, the duo took toys Kosair had collected (along with some they purchased on their own) and asked engineers to rewire them so differently abled children could use the toys with a push-button device. Suddenly, a seemingly simple bubble blower became an accessible toy for a child with special needs.
She brought the toys − and Christmas joy − to Kosair for Kids on Dec. 18, 2023, and plans to keep the project going, hoping to partner with other companies to adapt even more toys for children in the future. She and her sophomore classmates will present the Personal Project in 2024.
Sydney and the other students featured were nominated by high school principals, teachers or guidance counselors for outstanding achievement.
The readers got to pick the best of the best in our polls.
The nomination period and poll voting opens every Monday and closes at noon each Thursday. Students will be featured in the Sunday Courier Journal. Schools can nominate students now with this link: http://bit.ly/3SaSNOZ.
Learn more about the Student of the Week nominees:
Hailey Browning, Our Lady of Providence: Over the past two summers, Hailey has volunteered at the VA Medical Center acquiring just over 100 total hours of service. Because of this, she was allowed to apply for a scholarship to put toward college sponsored by the VA and three other veteran organizations. It required her to write an essay in addition to the 100 hours of service. I am happy to share that she received first place and received a $500 award at a ceremony.
Charles "Chaz" Kapfhammer, Trinity High School: Trinity is honored to nominate Charles “Chaz” Kapfhammer for the Courier Journal Student of the Week. Chaz, a senior at Trinity, was key in bringing back, leading and organizing the entertaining faculty versus students basketball game. The annual contest, a long-standing tradition at Trinity, was not played in 2020 due to COVID and, unfortunately, not played since. Chaz brought forth the return of the game and spearheaded a committee of students who planned it for the entire school to view. Chaz also used the game as a fundraiser for Beacon House.Additionally, Chaz has used his artistic talents to create several graphics that appear on Trinity’s social media accounts. These accounts are key components in Trinity’s communication efforts.
Nick Osborne, Bethlehem High School: Nick is a standout student. He strives to put his best foot forward in his academics, his service and in the community. He is a member of the golf, football and basketball teams. Hard work is no stranger to Nick as he was the leading scorer for the Eagles basketball team in a big win this week.
Madison Powell, Presentation Academy: Madison is deserving of this recognition because not only is she an honor student but an extraordinary volleyball player. She is in Presentation's prestigious Senior Independent Program creating unique bracelets for elementary students to help them learn math in a fun and engaging way.
Reach features news clerk Gege Reed at greed@courier-journal.com.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Sacred Heart sophomore named high school Student of the Week
