Chinese-born Szoa Zhi Geng remembers starting first grade in the United States knowing few phrases beyond her native tongue.
But the school's spelling bee proved Geng's favorite tutor. With an eye on the bee's trophies, Geng delved into English-written books to see how words were spelled — and soon developed a love for reading.
Today, the straight-A Timpview High senior's English mastery, talents and expertise likely exceeds that of many native speakers, including a cadre of Utah's top students.
Geng, a French Club council member, occasional Mandarin interpreter and tutor in the experimental elementary school attached to the Beijing Normal University, was named the top English student at the 43rd Annual Deseret Morning News and KSL-TV Sterling Scholar awards ceremony Wednesday night.
Judges also selected Geng as the overall General Sterling Scholar for her well-rounded academic and leadership excellence, brining her total winnings to $2,500.
Consider the cash spent on college — she hopes at Yale or Columbia.
"I'm absolutely overwhelmed . . . I just feel like I sound more impressive than I really am," said Geng, who hopes to study international relations, become a physician and work for the World Health Organization, writing along the way. "I want to live life, and just experience life."
Geng is among 13 Sterling Scholars selected from 11 Utah high schools in nine school districts from Cache to Utah counties. They were selected from a list of 676 nominees, which was whittled to 195 finalists earlier this month.
Sterling Scholars receive $1,000 checks and possibilities for additional scholarships at Utah and Idaho colleges and universities. Twenty-six runners-up — two in each category, ranging from foreign language to family and consumer sciences — receive $250 checks for their talents.
For many, however, money for mind power is nothing new.
Provo High senior Lindsay Kinateder, the family and consumer science Sterling Scholar, is an aspiring chef with her own wedding-cake business.
Skyline High senior Omar Musa, the computer technology Sterling Scholar, created the Soccer Fans Network Web site, which receives more than a half million hits monthly and has carried advertising for ESPN and other major companies.
And Bountiful High senior Annie Henrie, the visual arts Sterling Scholar, has sold her paintings at Utah and Arizona galleries and been commissioned to paint portraits — at about $200 a pop. Not bad for a day's work: "I don't like to work long hours," Henrie confesses.
Sterling Scholars, sponsored by the Deseret News and KSL-TV, is patterned after a Florida newspaper's program that sought to honor academic excellence similar to heralded athletic achievement. The program blossomed in Utah in 1962 under former Deseret News education editor Lavor K. Chaffin.
The program since has grown in prestige, and scope, to include 13 academic categories, from computer technology to visual arts, and two specialty awards, which come with $200.
Weber High senior Elizabeth Stitt, an English Sterling Scholar finalist, was awarded the Douglas F. Bates Community Service Award, named after the late child advocate and state school law and legislation director.
And Skyline High senior Erin Marie Fults, a science Sterling Scholar finalist, received the Philo T. Farnsworth Governor's Award, which honors student innovations in the spirit of the Utah-born father of television.
Fults is among a handful of other young women honored in typically male-dominated fields.
Sterling Scholar and Timpview High senior Sarah Stokes has been collaborating on research at Brigham Young University's AFM (Atomic Force Microscope) lab and received several awards for the results, which are said to have significant possible applications in biomedical technology and nanoelectronics.
Melissa Hallam of Spanish Fork High, the Sterling Scholar in trade and technical education, produces show pigs able to compete on a national level, is growing grain corn for livestock and alfalfa hay on acres she leases, and has even welded her own horse trailer.
The awards culminate a long process of creating portfolios, interviewing with and, where applicable, making presentations or performing for judges considered experts in their fields.
"This is the most exciting and impressive award" for Sky View High senior and social science Sterling Scholar Robert Kent, who also has won the President's Award in Educational Excellence and been a delegate to the 42nd U.S. Senate Youth Program.
Still, he was convinced he wouldn't win, and even made plans to take in a rock concert downtown once his category was read.
Fellow winners can relate. As Kent puts it: "People are ridiculously overqualified."
Take foreign language Sterling Scholar Sarah L. Hecht. She grew up in a Polish-speaking home, knows French and Spanish and is learning Hebrew. The West High senior has traveled the world, and she even helped deliver a baby during a humanitarian medical mission with her physician mother.
Still, this is Hecht's first award in foreign language.
"If I say I've accomplished so much, I'll be satisfied with myself, and I don't ever want to be satisfied with myself," said Hecht, who also has refounded the school's chemistry club and scored a perfect 800 on the math portion of the SAT. "I usually don't apply for many awards, but this one seemed worth it."
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E-mail: jtcook@desnews.com