She set a national record for the most awards won at a state-level Future Business Leaders of America competition. She authored a book on educational reform, and started an online business — and that’s just the beginning.
Capping an already stellar high school career, Alta High’s Emily Erickson ended her senior year by being named Utah’s 2021 Sterling Scholar in the Business and Marketing Category and a National Merit Scholar.
The National Merit Scholarship program is one of nation’s premier academic honors, and joining Erickson in the recognition are two other CSD students: Hillcrest High’s John M. Baird and Michael Q. Lu.
This year’s 2,500 Merit Scholar designees were chosen from a talent pool of 16,000 finalists, representing fewer than one percent of the nation’s high school seniors. They were judged by a committee of college admissions officers and high school counselors based on their academic records, including the difficulty of subjects they studied, their scores from standardized tests, contributions to their schools and communities, and an essay.
Erickson, who lists her likely field of work as industrial engineering, was the lone CSD student to win a first-place prize in Utah’s Sterling Scholar competition.
But CSD did have four runners-up. Corner Canyon’s Lauren Carn was a runner up in Speech, Theater Arts and Forensics. Hillcrest’s Rushmeen Tariq is a runner-up in Social Sciences. Hillcrest’s Anna Hsu was a runner-up in Science. And Corner Canyon’s McKay Larsen is a runner up in World Languages. We extend these inspiring young students a heartfelt virtual applause, and wish them well in their career and college endeavors.
Sponsored by the KSL and the Deseret News, the Sterling Scholar program celebrates the academic and artistic achievements of some of Utah’s top high school students. Every school statewide is invited to nominate one student in each the competition’s 14 categories. Typically, the winners are announced at an in-person ceremony. However, this year’s ceremony was held remotely, due to COVID-19 restrictions, and the winners and runners-up were announced on YouTube.
