Jaime Gensler, Renee Padia and Tyler Walker Named 2015 Tigard Chamber Scholarship Recipients

The Tigard Area Chamber of Commerce (TACC) is pleased to announce the 2015 recipients of the Tigard Shining Stars Scholarship Award.  Each recipient will receive a $1000 scholarship sponsored by Pride Disposal and the members of the Tigard Area Chamber of Commerce.  Applicants were judged based on career plans, extracurricular and/or work activities, scholastic achievement and letters of recommendation.  Please join us in congratulating the following students for earning this highly competitive scholarship: Jaime Gensler, Tigard High School
Renee Padia, Tigard High School
Tyler Walker, Tigard High School
Jaime Gensler is a senior at Tigard High School and is actively engaged in his community.  His extracurricular activities include band, instrumental music, Tigard High School Cross Country and Track JV teams, Link Leader, French Club and National English Honor Society.  Jaime’s volunteer activities include 300 hours of service organizing a Community Walk over the last 4 years for the American Foundation of Suicide Prevention and 100+ hours of participation in SOLVE Beach Clean-Up over the last 6 years.  Last but not least, Jaime is the founder of SPEAK (Students Promoting Emotional Awareness and Knowledge, a student led group promoting mental health awareness, fundraising for access to services, and supporting students including a monthly mental health awareness day, resulting in increased easiness when students talk about issues like anxiety and depression.  Since its founding, Jaime has dedicated over 250 hours to this volunteer organization.  
During his high school career Jaime has maintained a 4.0/4.38 weighted GPA and will graduate with an IB Diploma.   During his IB Junior English class, Jaime found the value of a good teacher and was inspired by their example.  He saw the significant impact a single teacher could make and it made him want to become one himself.  To that end, Jaime’s career and education goals include gaining his Undergraduate and & Masters Degrees in English and Education with plans to be an educator and to continue his non-profit work and volunteering in the area of mental health.  
Renee Padia is a senior at Tigard High School and is involved with Key Club, Spanish National Honor Society and Varsity Lacrosse.  Her volunteerism includes NW Children’s Outreach, the Good Neighbor Center, Oregon Food Bank, Medical Teams International and Special Olympics.  She also in all this has found time to work as a baby sitter for over two years.  According to one of her references, she is passionate about giving back to our community and equally passionate about her education.  
Throughout her high school career Renee has maintained a 3.75/3.875 weighted GPA and in keeping with her future degree her coursework has included IB Chemistry, IB Spanish and IB Psychology.  Renee’s career and education goals include obtaining her degree from OSU in Chemical Engineering, and being in a job that leads in innovative ways to maintain and improve the environment for communities far and wide.  She is highly interested in working for the non-profit Engineers without Borders (EWB) which works on engineering projects that are community driven both locally and internationally such as clean water, renewal energy, sanitation and more.  OSU has a chapter of EWB, which she plans on joining as soon as possible.
Tyler Walker, a senior at Tigard High as well, has been involved in both varsity baseball and varsity football for the last 4 years.  Additionally he is engaged in Young Life, STUDD (Stop Underage Drinking and Drugs), FCA and Tigard Leadership, and has coached players at Youth Football Camp and Little League camp, both for 4 years.  As noted by one his teachers, these activities exemplify the kind of person Tyler is.
Tyler has balanced both sports and academics at Tigard High, achieving a 3.96/4.09 weighted GPA with numerous IB courses along with all his other sports and volunteer activities.  Sports are Tyler’s passion and while he doesn’t plan to play in college, he plans to marry his degree and this passion by pursuing a Bachelors’ in Business Management at University of Oregon, with the hopes of interning with the Oregon Football program to be able to pursue a career in the business side of sports with either a University or a Professional Sports organization, with a long term vision of being a GM of a professional sports team.  
Congratulations to all these recipients.  These scholarships will be formally presented with other Tigard volunteer and business awards at Tigard’s 2015 Shining Stars Community Awards Celebration, sponsored by Platinum Title Sponsor Washington Federal.  The event will be held on Friday, April 24th from 5:30-9 p.m. at Embassy Suites – Washington Square, our event location host.  With a theme of “Tigard’s Oscars”, this Oscar’s themed dinner event includes dinner, silent auction, dessert dash, awards, and more. Tickets are only $35/person.  Dress your best and join us to celebrate Tigard!
For further details about Shining Stars, please contact the Tigard Area Chamber of Commerce at 503-639-1683 or at debi@tigardchamber.org, or go to our webpage at www.tigardchamber.org.