ActivePaper Archive Ruybalid accepts Princeton admission, Goree Scholarship - The Chronicle News, 5/18/2017

ACHIEVEMENT

Ruybalid accepts Princeton admission, Goree Scholarship

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The Chronicle-News, file photo

Sally Jane Ruybalid

Sally Jane Ruybalid, Trinidad High School (THS) Class of 2017, has been accepted to Princeton University and will be attending under the Mary John Goree Princeton University scholarship, which covers her full tuition.

The Mary John Goree Princeton University scholarship is a merit-based scholarship, which is awarded only after the student, a resident of Las Animas County, is accepted to Princeton University.

Ruybalid is also a 2017 THS valedictorian. She is the daughter of Sarah Jane and Frank Ruybalid, and has been a student of Trinidad School District No. 1 since she began preschool and has maintained a cumulative GPA of 4.3.

Ruybalid has been active in many organizations at THS and is also an active member of the National Honor Society.

As a volunteer, Ruybalid solely wrote and published the THS monthly newsletter in 2013-2014 and 2014-2015, helped dedicate the street Miner Drive in 2015, and brought back the whitewashing of the “T” for two years in a row (2015 and 2016). She has been the first girl to attend the American Legion Girls State Conference in Greeley where she was elected governor by her peer attendees, the first to run for and win state office of FCCLA, and the first girl from Trinidad to compete in the Elk’s National Soccer Shootout contest where she placed second. With help from other entities, she also brought back the THS Homecoming bonfire in 2014, 2015, and 2016.

Ruybalid has also served as the Lady Miner basketball team statistician for three years, and earned letters for those years. She is a four-year academic letter-woman and has spent over 300 hours of community service through History Colorado, the A.R. Mitchell Museum, Fisher’s Peak Soup Kitchen, and taking care of feral cats, among other actions.

Ruybalid went with a select group of Colorado FCCLA state officers to Washington, D.C. in September 2016 in order to lobby Congress for the re-authorization of career and technical education funding for high schools.

Ruybalid has been awarded the Kiwanis Phyllis Moniot Community Service Award, the CU Boulder Outstanding Student Award, was a qualifier for the Colorado State Science and Engineering Fair, and served as a lead Junior Escort for the Class of 2016 commencement ceremonies.

Last month, Ruybalid attended the FCCLA State Leadership Conference and medaled gold in Competitive Job Interview, receiving a perfect score. She will be pursuing the national title at FCCLA Nationals this July in Nashville, Tennessee.

Ruybalid plans on pursuing a major in architecture so that she may someday have a historic restoration firm.