Suhling plans to use her talents in home state
By Jennifer Eisenbart
Staff writer
Like most students at Catholic Central High School, Casandra Suhling had college in her future as she started her senior year.
The question was: would she get the financial aid to go to where she wanted.
“I got accepted in January,” said Suhling. “Financial aid notifications come out mid-March.”
She received a scholarship from Marquette, and a grant, but still, the $46,000-a-year tuition was a heady issue for the 18-year-old.
“I just loved the feeling on the campus,” said Suhling, who has been getting alumni material from a relative since 1995.
“They have a great speech pathology program,” she added. “I was willing to take on the student loans.”
Suhling’s ability and desire to better herself at a university such as Marquette – not to mention her long list of accomplishments at Catholic Central, recently earned her selection by the Standard Press staff as the CCHS Outstanding senior from a pool of four nominees from the school.
Suhling has been active in her community, spending time volunteering for things ranging from religious education teacher to bully mentor to student ambassador.
That list – which required two pages and 20 different entries – totals more than 700 service hours. Students in her graduating class needed to complete just 50.
“I guess that was how I was raised,” she said. “My parents are big into it, and so are my grandparents.
“Our church community (St. John the Baptist in Paris) pushes us a lot.”
The large number of hours turned into the President’s Volunteer Service Award. It also, along with watching her grandmother go through speech therapy following a stroke, helped her decide on a career – speech pathology and audiology.
“I want to go for a bilingual certificate, in English and Spanish,” Suhling explained. “I think I would stay in Milwaukee and teach in the Milwaukee Public Schools as a speech therapist.”
“I think that they have a big need, and being in Milwaukee already, on Marquette’s campus, they have a clinic you work in,” Suhling said. “I think that would help me transition from small-town Burlington to big-town MPS.”
Among the awards Suhling picked up in pursuing her goals was the Marquette Alumni Club Scholarship, worth $6,700 a year, as well as a $5,000 freshman grant that she can apply for in other years, the Kohl’s “Kids Who Care” Scholarship, and the Daughters of the American Revolution Good Citizens Award.
Suhling was involved with the CCHS softball team all four years, as well as volleyball as a freshman and sophomore and football manager as a junior and senior. She was also involved in the school musical as a sophomore and a senior, the Pro-Life Club and Student Ambassadors.
In pursuing all this, she also worked at Alliant Physical Therapy and Society’s Assets.
Here are profiles of the other three nominees for the Standard Press Outstanding Senior Award provided by the staff at Catholic Central High School:
Allison Hocking
Hocking, the daughter of Brian and Paula Hocking, will attend Winona State University to play basketball. She plans on majoring in athletic training and sports medicine.
A three-sport athlete, Hocking was a huge part of the success of the school’s volleyball, basketball and softball teams. The Lady ’Toppers won a state championship in 2011 in volleyball and reached the sectional semifinal in basketball and the sectional final in softball in 2012.
In addition to her athletic exploits, Hocking was also a student ambassador for three years and president of Students Against Destructive Decisions as a senior. She was part of the school’s Homecoming Court and Prom Court in 2011.
Hocking volunteered time with the school’s basketball and volleyball camps, as well as at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin. She has umpired for Burlington Girls Softball League and babysat for about 40 hours a week for the last three years.
Will Sember
Sember, the son of James and Marion Sember and CCHS’s salutatorian, will attend the University of Dayton for electrical and computer engineering.
Sember was a National Merit Scholarship finalist, as well as being on the high honor roll at CCHS all four years and a member of the National Honor Society. He has earned a Trustee’s Merit Scholarship from the University of Dayton.
At school, Sember was a co-founder of the school’s Pro-Life club, as well as a student ambassador all four years and on student council for two years.
Sember’s community service varied from anti-bullying mentoring to teaching Sunday school, preparing the computer for the Transitional Living Center and helping maintain the CCHS computer.
As an athlete, Sember participated in track, cross country and cheerleading.
Scott Vrzan
The son of Steve and Sue Vrzan, Scott was a standout football player at Catholic Central, serving as captain for his senior year. He was also a member of the honor roll.
He was also involved with the school’s Prom Court and Homecoming courts, and was Prom King in 2011. He was involved with SADD as a senior representative.
Vrzan has spent time working in the Camp MacLean kitchen for the past three years.
He will attend the University of Wisconsin-Platteville to major in civil engineering.
-
-
-
-
-