Integrity, citizenship and drive; these are the traits that are recognized for well-rounded student leaders in the community.
Timber Creek’s principal, Donald Bartlett, selected four senior student leaders for the Ronald Reagan Student Leader Award. Seniors Ashley Nagel, Dillon Fontaine, Brianna Mendez and Katie Magee were nominated and are to share their leadership skills for the Walter and Leonore Annenberg Presidential Learning Center.
The Ronald Reagan Student Leader Scholarship is a combination of qualities for the overall student including drive, integrity and the citizenship they provide to their school.
“I’ve heard about the Ronald Reagan scholarship award before and then I was never at the point in my career where I was the principal of a comprehensive high school like this to be able to nominate,” said Bartlett. “I was a principal of a freshman campus where we didn’t get the opportunity to do that, but what brought it to my attention again is their advertising.”
Ashley Nagel has been a part of Timber Creek’s student media since the fall of 2015 and has developed numerous TCTV productions, livestream games for Timber Creek Sports Network and written 86 articles for the newspaper, Timber Creek Talon. She takes on leadership roles through being an editorial editor, and producer for both TCTV and Timber Creek Sports Network.
“I’ve really tried to make a difference with my leadership throughout this year, so I’m extremely honored to be given the Ronald Reagan Award from Mr. Bartlett,” said Nagel. “My leadership has helped me pursue [my] career through not being afraid to take chances, face adversity head on and tackle hard topics.”
Dillon Fontaine, during his senior year, was the Student Council President, National Honors Society Vice President, Texas Association of Student Councils District three Parliamentarian and founder of History Club. He is involved in a total of five clubs and in previous years has held positions as Sophomore Class Vice President, Co-Committee Coordinator and Junior Class President. Fontaine continues to pursue his interest through leadership positions wherever they may be.
“To be awarded the Reagan Leadership Award is truly an honor. It heartens me to know that others see the same qualities in me that were once emulated by one of our nation’s fearless leaders,” said Fontaine.
Brianna Mendez is currently the Senior Class Vice President. She is in Student Council, Superintendent’s Student Board Executive Council, National Honors Society, on the varsity team for volleyball and has played a leading role in starting projects such as Project Beautiful in her junior and senior year. Mendez has been influenced by teachers and particularly her senior class sponsor, Emily Boehringer.
“I admire [Boehringer’s] ability to be so kind and so pregnant at the same time. She’s shown me what hard work and dedication can lead to and there are great leaders within the workplace and as parents,” said Mendez. “It’s a great honor and I am so thankful for this award, I never do what I do for recognition I really just want to make people’s lives at Timber Creek a bit better.”
Katie Magee is also involved in various clubs, such as French Club, National Honor Society and volleyball. Every Saturday, she spends her time at church with three to five years olds, as well as separately babysitting life groups and maintaining her job at Belk.
“It feels so great being awarded for this award. I really don’t ever stop and appreciate all my accomplishments so to receive this is just a blessing,” said Magee. “The leaders I look up to are my pastor, Jamie Pope, my manager, Susan Platt and Mr. Bartlett. They all lead in very different ways and in very different aspects: a school, church and a clothing store. It’s important as a leader to also be able to lead yourself because you can’t grow if you are always teaching and not learning.”
After sharing their experiences, the nominees will be given a coin and a certificate that goes along with it.
“When I started reading the criteria of the award, I just kind of thought about who are those people that do that on this campus. We have more than four, but people that really stuck out to me and people I’ve had interactions with I would have to say too, are those four that I chose,” said Bartlett. “Again it’s all different dynamic areas, none of those four do the same type of stuff at Timber Creek. It’s really varied and really wide and so I thought that was kind of neat too when I started choosing because we have leadership in multiple ways here and multiple forms.”