Oregon Student Selected as Section 8 Recipient of NFHS National High School Heart of the Arts Award
Emma Dobesh, a student at Gresham (Oregon) Centennial High School, has been selected as the 2018 Section 8 recipient of the “National High School Heart of the Arts Award” by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS).
The National High School Heart of the Arts Award was created by the NFHS to recognize those individuals who exemplify the ideals of the positive heart of the arts that represent the core mission of education-based activities. This is the fifth year that the National High School Heart of the Arts Award has been offered.
An outstanding student, Dobesh ranks seventh in her class of 400 students with an unweighted 3.97 grade-point average (4.1 weighted). Throughout high school, she has always taken advanced courses and honors courses.
Dobesh has been active on Centennial’s Speech and Debate Team, ranging from serving as information hub coordinator for two years, to serving as public relations officer.
In addition, Dobesh has served three years in outdoor school, teaching field studies to sixth-graders about soil via hands-on activities such as having them “mine” the chocolate chips out of a cookie to demonstrate how mining destroys the earth.
Amidst her parents’ divorce and wanting to support her parents, her twin sister and her younger brother, Dobesh has not let circumstances such as not being able to see her mother for almost a year consume her focus. Instead, she has turned hurt into compassion toward everyone she meets.
Dobesh has also helped those who are in need outside of her world. Among them, she has spent three summers volunteering with her youth group at
First Nation reservations such as Warm Springs in Oregon and Lapwai in Idaho. She has also helped establish and paint a community garden to feed the hungry. On one trip, students worked in the food bank and made an uninhabitable house into a home for a family.
About the Award
The NFHS divides the nation into eight geographical sections. The states in Section 8 are Oregon, Washington, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and Alaska.
Nominations for this award were generated through NFHS member state associations and reviewed by the NFHS Heart of the Arts Award Selection Committee composed of state association staff members.
While the national winner will be recognized June 29 at the NFHS Summer Meeting in Chicago, Illinois, the section winners will be recognized within their respective states and will receive awards before the end of the current school year.
# # #
