Alki Masons honor West Seattle’s talented juniors

By Ty Swenson

05/21/2013 

In a tradition reaching back 35 years, the Alki Masonic Lodge held their Annual School Awards on May 20 to honor the hard work, both in the classroom and the community, of eight juniors each from Chief Sealth and West Seattle High School.

In the words of the Mason’s, “The purpose of this School Awards Program is to recognize, and thus stimulate, participation in Public School Education. The Masonic Fraternity has long supported the public school system as one of the basic necessities in maintaining the American Ideal of Democracy.”

Mason Martin Monk, who ran the show, said the 35th anniversary was a special one for him since he had received the award 35 years ago as a student at West Seattle High School.

In addition to a plaque honoring their achievements, the juniors also received $200. After the first 16 recipients were announced (and who in turn announced the support of their family and friends in attendance), the Mason’s unveiled their four winners out of that group (a boy and girl from each school) who receive additional scholarship funds and are entered into the Mason’s statewide scholarship competition.

The eight recipients from each school were hand-picked by school staff, and the eventual winners were picked by the Masons.

Here are the winners (In bold italics are the 2013 Top Boys and Girls):

Chief Sealth International High School:
Tasha Addington-Ferris
Izac Bauer
Nicole Carter
Miquel Castillo
Eileen Lee
Oscar Mwaba
Christina Nguyen
Matthew Wo

West Seattle High School:
Megan Antalan
Baylee Corey
Regine Fernandez
Lukas Irwin
Myka Kielbon
Matthew Lee
Michael Lee
Phi-Khanh Pham

Also in attendance were last year’s winners, who each spoke and gave the junior’s good advice on preparing for college in the year to come. Past winners included Mariah Rubio-Reboca and Sean Umeda from Chief Sealth, and Keitaro Hallberg and Michiko Yoshino from West Seattle High School.