Project First Rate Bright Future Scholarship

2008 Winners

Caitlin Hanson

Caitlin Hanson has shown incredible leadership in the last four years, both in school and in her community. Elected by her peers to Student Council throughout high school, she has acted as Class Representative, Council Secretary and Class President. She has performed extensive community service work through Student Council, the National Honor Society and her church. This is all in addition to being involved in band, Scholastic Bowl, Volleyball, Golf and Soccer.

Girl Scouting has been a part of Caitlin’s life for 12 years. She achieved her Silver Award for the “Purse Project” where teen clients at Lutheran Social Services, Juvenile Probation, the WAVE shelter and churches were provided with purses containing all the necessary items a teen girl would want in her purse.

For the past two years, Caitlin has served on Mayor Morrissey’s Youth Advisory Council or “n Factor,” which advises the Mayor and the community on important issues concerning our city and its youth. They plan and organize many activities designed to give peers a positive place to socialize. She is passionate about this movement and hopes to continue the progress that it has started in our community. In Caitlin’s words, “The youth of today are to be agents of change for tomorrow, and I want to help people be excited about the future.”

Her immediate plan after high school is to pursue an undergraduate degree in the biological sciences or journalism in order to delve into the arena of broadcast research journalism. But someday she’d also like to attend culinary school because she feels that “to really get to know someone or learn about his or her culture is through food, it is a universal language!”

Kelly Goldthorpe embodies what Bright Future is all about with the leadership she has displayed the past four years. She feels her enthusiasm is her greatest strength and those who know her know it is definitely contagious.

Although she has been on the swim team at Auburn High School for 4 years, serving as Captain for part of that time, Kelly’s real passion lies in media.

She has been on the Yearbook staff the entire time she’s been at Auburn and has served as Editor in Chief for the past 3 years. Her passion for graphic design and layout management is evident and ideally that is what she would do with the rest of her life. Having had to face the harsh reality that most businesses in the working world have no need for a yearbook, she has turned her focus to magazine design.

Kelly got involved in mentoring freshmen at Auburn after realizing herself how rough the transition can be. She worked diligently to improve the freshmen orientation program, to the extent that she enlisted 100+ peer mentors to help 20-30 students each.

In addition, she developed a go-to guide for them to reference throughout their high school years, a magazine called “Fresh: A fresh look at Auburn High School.” Filled with eye-grabbing photographs, this magazine covers everything from what to keep in your backpack, to dress code, to information on dual credit courses.

Kelly has been accepted at the University of Missouri – Columbia and its school of journalism, nationally renowned for having one of the best journalism programs, not only in the country, but in the world. From there she plans to move to the Big Apple, “where all the magic happens,” and do her graduate studies at Columbia University, shifting her focus to public relations. She would like to start a journalism program at an inner-city school combining all facets of media, enabling students to “dabble” in various types of communication.

Bright Future Scholarship Past Winners