Highline Community College

MEDIA RELEASE

FOR RELEASE: IMMEDIATELY
DATE: March 19, 2009

CONTACT: Lisa Skari: (206) 870-3705, lskari@highline.edu

Highline Community College standout receives national honor
Running Start student selected as Coca-Cola Gold Scholar

DES MOINES, Wash. — Highline Community College student Tierney Kuhn, of Auburn, has been selected as a Coca-Cola Gold Scholar, a national award that honors the top 50 U.S. scholars in the Coca-Cola All-State Community College Academic Team competition.

“I'm extremely honored to win the award, and it’s made me feel more confident about transferring to a four-year university,” said Kuhn, a 17-year-old Running Start student who was accepted to Princeton University for fall 2009.

The honor comes with a $1,500 scholarship and recognition in an April issue of USA Today.

In addition, Kuhn has been named Washington state’s New Century Scholar for having the state’s highest score in the Coca-Cola academic team competition.

Kuhn will represent the state at opening ceremonies of the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) convention from April 4-6 in Phoenix. The honor comes with a $2,000 stipend from the Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation and Coca-Cola Foundation.

Kuhn was selected out of 62 members on the 2009 All-Washington Academic Team, a program that recognizes students from the state’s technical and community colleges for academic achievement and community service.

She came to Highline in fall 2007 as a Running Start student from Fife High School who had a drive to succeed academically and personally.

She has remained focused on her goals, pursuing two degrees – Associate of Arts and Associate of Science – at the same time while maintaining a 3.9 GPA. She’s on track to graduate in June 2009 as a Highline Honors Scholar, as well.

She currently serves as president of HCC’s Software Engineering Club and co-president of Highline’s chapter of Phi Theta Kappa (PTK), the international honor society of two-year colleges.

In addition, Kuhn has been instrumental in helping create a student-to-student textbook exchange Website that would be hosted by the college. The Website is expected to be operational spring quarter. She also helps solve the college’s software issues as an intern for Highline’s Information Technology department.

She is active in many activities at her high school, including Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA).

Kuhn plans on studying computer science at Princeton University. Eventually, she would like to obtain her master’s degree and doctorate so she can become a full-time researcher in artificial intelligence.

The New Century Scholars program is sponsored by the AACC, the Coca-Cola Foundation, the Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation and PTK. For more information about the New Century Scholars program, visit www.ptk.org.

The All-Washington Academic Team program is sponsored by Washington Association of Community and Technical Colleges, Trustees Association of Community and Technical Colleges, State Board for Community and Technical Colleges and PTK. For more information about the All-Washington Academic Team, visit www.spscc.ctc.edu/allwa.

Highline Community College was founded in 1961 as the first community college in King County. With approximately 10,000 students and 350,000 alumni, it is one of the state’s largest institutions of higher education. The college offers a wide range of academic transfer and professional-technical education programs, with day, evening, online and weekend classes.

With the most diverse population of any college in Washington state, Highline takes a multicultural approach to education for the success of all its students and the prosperity of its surrounding communities. Alumni include former Seattle Mayor Norm Rice, entrepreneur Junki Yoshida and Washington state poet laureate Sam Green.

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Attachments: (1) Photo of Tierney Kuhn