Tigard’s 2012 Shining Stars Community Awards Scholarship Recipients Named

The Tigard Area Chamber of Commerce (TACC) is pleased to announce the 2012 Shining Stars Scholarship recipients:Receiving a Pride Disposal and Tigard Area Chamber of Commerce $1500 Scholarship Award
Jordan Gensler, Tigard High School
Sydney Melin Hutton, Tigard High School

Please join us in congratulating these two young people on their scholarship awards.  They were selected from a competitive pool of high caliber applicants.  Applicants were evaluated based on career plans, extracurricular and/or work activities, scholastic achievement and letters of recommendation. Sydney Melin Hutton’s career goal is to establish a business that centers around helping others adjust to the anxiety and stress of our ever changing world through a focus on mental health medicine.  Sydney has 6 years of Spanish, including an immersion program in Costa Rica.  She plans to utilize her bilingual capabilities in her career.  Actively involved in her community, Sydney in her four years of high school alone has contributed over 550 volunteer hours to organizations which include the National Honor Society, Tigard Christian Church, Aurora Historical Society, Sherwood Ice Arena, Costa Rica Spanish Institute, and the Roloff Charity Foundation to name a few. During her tenure at Tigard High she has been Vice President of the Spanish National Honor Society, a LINK Leader, Secretary of S.T.A.N.D. (Students Taking Action Now Darfur), Vice President of the Ultimate Frisbee Team, member of S.T.U.D. (Stop Tigard Underage Drinking), and a Student Council member.  From 2001-2009 Sydney was also a competitive figure skater. She did all of this while maintaining a cumulative GPA of 3.8 and a weighted GPA of 4.15 with a heavy load of IB classes.  Sydney plans to pursue her undergraduate in a degree that will support her focus on mental health medicine and her choice of college is under consideration having been accepted at four and waiting to hear back from two more colleges. Jordan Gensler’s career goal  is to study business and computer science and eventually create his own technology startup.  Well on his way to doing that, Jordan has already started his own company, Keen Studios where he has done freelance web design and smartphone development work.  Additionally through consulting work with HP, Jordan has written and shipped a number of applications on the HP webOS platform. Aside from his business pursuits, Jordan’s extracurricular activities include writing and performing guitar and piano (9 years), Tigard High German Klub Officer (4 years), Tigard High Cross-Country JV team (4 years) and Oregon Game Project Competition (OGPC) where he placed 1st in game experience for 2 years.  In addition to the above, Jordan has been involved in his community through work with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) organizing an annual community walk and raising awareness of teen depression at THS working with the group, Students Promoting Mental Health.  Jordan has a 4.0 cumulative GPA and a 4.4 weighted GPA with a heavy load of IB classes and plans to pursue a 4 year degree in Computer Science/Business and gain his MBA.  His university choice at this time is yet undetermined. These scholarships are made possible through the generous contribution of Pride Disposal and over 80 other Tigard chamber members.  These scholarship awards will be formally presented with other Tigard volunteer and business awards  at Tigard’s 2012 Shining Stars Community Awards Celebration sponsored by Platinum Title Sponsor West Coast Bank and held on Friday, April 27th from 6-9 p.m. at Embassy Suites – Washington Square, event location host.  With a theme of “Escape to a Night in the Caribbean”, this Caribbean themed dinner event includes, dinner, silent auction, steel drum music, limbo, awards, and more.  Tickets are only $35/person, dress is casual, tropical.  Come Join Us and celebrate Tigard. For further details about Shining Stars, please contact the Tigard Area Chamber of Commerce at 503-639-1656 or at info@tigardchamber.org  or go to our webpage at www.tigardchamber.org About Tigard Area Chamber of Commerce (TACC) The TACC, established in 1955, is a forward thinking membership organization which provides opportunities for consistent and sustainable long-term business growth!  The TACC is creating a strong, interconnected business community where strength through collaboration and power through partnerships makes Business Soar.  We do this by building a strong local economy, providing business networking, being involved in our community and representing the interests of business with government.