A heart of service, wide variety of academic achievement and being a positive role model sums up the qualities of a girl deserving of the Girl of the Year Award. This year, senior Lizzie Williams, ’12 will represent FC at the conference, put on by the Exchange Club of Fresno, Feb. 23.

Previously, alumni Sydney Carlson, ’11, and Elizabeth Grossman, ’10, beat out their classmates on the point system, winning themselves nominations. Each participant receives $100 and a proclamation from Mayor Ashley Swearengin.

According to Williams, she was surprised to win a nomination, and is thankful for the recognition.

“I guess it is nice to be appreciated,” Williams said. “I was just really surprised that I ended up being the person from school that was chosen because I don’t feel like I’m involved in that much. But when you start to write it down on paper I can see that ‘hey, I actually have tried different things.'”

Principal Todd Bennett feels Williams is deserving due to her willingness to learn and her tenacity when it comes to schoolwork.

“Elizabeth is an outstanding student not just in ability or talent but her willingness to work,” Bennett said. “She has a gift for foreign languages, music and writing. She doesn’t waste the gifts God has given her and she represents our school well.”

In order for the Exchange Club to select the most deserving student, they invite a few candidates to a lunch to give a speech and learn more about the award. At this luncheon, which occurred, Jan. 12, Williams enjoyed meeting a fellow candidate from San Joaquin Memorial, since she noticed the variety of interests among the girls.

“It was also nice to see other girls that were nominated and the differences between us,” Williams said. “The girl who was with me was also very different than I was and that was interesting.”

The Exchange Club of Fresno is a service organization dedicated to giving recognition to industrious high school students who attain high levels of scholastic achievement, community involvement and leadership according to their website.

According to Academic Adviser Molly Sargent, the club is a great group to be involved with for a variety of reasons. In addition, the award involvement allows the name of FC to be spread in the community, she says.

“They are a service organization that we want to be apart of,” Sargent said. “They are the nicest people and they are just hysterical. We feel like if we are going to propagate the name of Fresno Christian to the community this is one of the ways we do that.”

The winner will be announced, Feb 23, and will move on to the state competition.

For more features, read the Jan. 27 article, New approach revamps NOTS movie.