By Kathy Mulady
Reporting for West Seattle Blog

Tuesday night was the time to shine for students in the West Seattle High School Class of 2009 – before their graduation a week from tomorrow.

Recognition and awards were given to dozens of students who excelled in academics, athletics, arts or have contributed in many ways to the high school community.

The ceremony was held in the WSHS Theater. Here are just some of the many highlights of the evening:

The big winners of the night were Sumeet Chadha and Maggie Oliver, each collecting multiple awards throughout the night. Sumeet was honored for his community service, school spirit and academics. He was one of the winners of the Gates Millennium full-ride college scholarships. Kaileah Baldwin was the other Gates scholarship winner. Maggie Oliver was honored as the World Languages student. She shared the prestigious Willard Shield – bestowed by the class in recognition of the highest standards of excellence – with Sumeet.

The “Service Above Self” award, which was given for the first time in 10 years, went to Jake Miller and Ross Monroe for numerous class contributions, including design and development of the new West Seattle High School website.

Brittney Dawson, Alex Ormsby and Sumeet Chadha were all recipients of the “Coke Roberts” award for leadership.

Teachers and advisors gave often effusive speeches recognizing outstanding students in their departments, including math-whiz Michelle Nguyen, Jordan Sewell for musical accomplishment, Liam Reed, Chris Morson and Karen Dean for drama, Marcus Hamlin for physical education — not only for his athletic accomplishment, but also for motivating others.

Technology kudos went to Trevor Lloyd, and to Victoria Kelly for family and consumer sciences.

Brittany Dawson was honored for achievement in business and marketing. Brittany took the lead in reopening the school store, which had been closed for several years.

Fashion designer Ellen Jensen and ceramic artist Jensen Perdue were honored for excelling in fine arts.

“Jensen has done things in ceramics that I have never seen before, large, elegant and complex,” said fine arts teacher Mike Gervais.

Brenden Peterson and Zak Hale were among the students recognized for academic achievement and other contributions. Brenden and Peterson have been friends since first grade and started their school careers at Schmitz Park Elementary.

Also: Here’s the list of students receiving scholarships; here’s the list of National Honor Society seniors.
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Editor’s note: Kathy Mulady is not only a veteran Seattle journalist, she also is proud mom to “Service Above Self” award winner Jake Miller.