Grand County High School students of the month for February 2019 are Ruth Dominguez Macias and Kasey Kemp.
Ruth is the daughter of Manuel Dominguez and Oiga Macias.
Her favorite classes are 3D graphics, robotics and history because “technology facilitates and benefits life, while in history we learn about past thoughts, important events and the evolution of our minds.”
Math is Ruth’s most challenging class, but she says that she pushes herself to do well in it nonetheless. English is also very challenging for her considering she has only been speaking English for three years now; it’s her second language.
Ruth “is a student with outstanding academic qualities,” says her teacher, Gerlit Buffington. “She is responsible, respectful, punctual, empathetic, kind and she has a great sense of humor.”
Her teacher says Ruth is always eager to learn and she likes to be challenged.
“She possesses artistic skills in the field of computer graphics which helped her to secure an internship with the Moab Times-Independent in the first trimester,” Buffington says. “Ruth has seen great improvement in her English language skills since she started her high school years.”
Ruth was a part of the soccer team her freshman year and has also received two recognitions for her language class and another in her math class. Ruth has been working at the Moab Wash and Fold for about eight months now. She is still deciding what she wants to do after high school, but her current career trajectories include several possibilities, such as graphic designer, counselor or software engineer.
Kasey Kemp is the son of Sophie and Michael Kemp.
His favorite class was AP Calculus because, as he recalls, “it sparked interest [with] its application while both challenging me and feeding my curiosity.”
Allison Brown, Kasey’s AP Calculus teacher, says, “Kasey has excelled in the math classroom.”
He passed the AP Calculus exam with a score of 5 his junior year and has taken and excelled at Calculus 2 through Utah State University this year.
His teacher said he was always willing to demonstrate his ability and to take chances and learn from his peers.
“He is open to learning new concepts and is able to ask questions of the application of the concept, not just the process of achieving the answer,” Brown says. “Besides that, he is a funny, personable guy who is going to excel at anything he puts his mind to.”
His most challenging class is AP English.
“I have to work harder in that class to do well than any other,” he said. “The class forces me to know my weaknesses so I can improve upon them.”
Kasey has been a part of the golf, tennis, swim and track teams along with the school marching band. He is also currently a part of Student Body Office Public Relations and is the Southeast Utah winner in the Math category.
Kasey is a student leader for the local Young Life and Wyld Life, Christian-based mentor and support organizations.
He has been a lifeguard for the Moab Recreation and Aquatics Center for about three years and helps do maintenance work on the pool when needed.
He is planning on going to the University of Utah in the fall of 2019 to pursue a degree in electrical engineering.
This article was written by GCHS teaching assistant Ana Castner.
