At Coral Springs Charter School, extracurriculars are a pillar part of student’s lives. Students shine in these programs, showing true hard work and dedication, but with such dedication comes an extreme time commitment that can be intensely crippling to many students. Earning the title of a well rounded student becomes exceedingly more difficult when you have to balance practices, meetings, and finishing your math homework.
Maintaining this balance tends to be especially challenging for many student athletes, who must balance practices, games, grades, and other extracurriculars. To acknowledge all of the hard work for which these students do on a daily basis, a select few are awarded the title “Scholar Athlete”.
This year, seven students from Charter were chosen to represent this high caliber of excellence, including Carson Dubich, Abby Foster, Adrianna Harris, Jaide Keen, Alexis Newland, Maria Rojas, and Jaia White.
The requirements for this award were extremely rigorous, needing: at least a 3.2 GPA, showing good character and sportsmanship, being a varsity letter winner, having their coaches recommendation, demonstrating service to both their school and community, and being selected by their school principal. Having such a heavy such a pacted schedule makes meeting all these requirements quite a challenge.
“The biggest thing for me is burnout, and just being tired”, said Senior Jaide Keen. With everything these students must do in a day, it can make their to-do list feel never ending, making them feel drained and discouraged.
In order to overcome these challenges these students stress the importance of moderation, rest, and sacrifice.
“Sometimes you need to recognize that you can’t do it all”, said Senior Jaia White.
These sacrifices often come at the expense of these student’s social lives. “Sometimes you have to choose between going out with your friends or going to practice”, said Senior Abby Foster. “You have to miss certain things, even if you want to be there because you just can’t”.
Even though the process seems grueling and never ending, the reward is well worth it, with these athletes being given the opportunity to earn scholarships for their hard work. This year students Alexis Newland and Jaia White were awarded these high honors.
These athletes serve as guiding examples for students to come. Truly proving that nothing is impossible, and that through hard work and sacrifice, you too can achieve your goals.