Senior Lauren Ryan won the Joseph Adams Senior scholarship from the Sociedad Honoraria Hispanica, an honor society Ryan partakes in as a Spanish language student. The national scholarship is awarded to 60 students from over 2,400 United States chapters, according to Spanish teacher Marina Lopez. Ryan submitted samples of her written and oral work in Spanish in order to receive the scholarship. Ryan is the first student from STA to win this award.

While Ryan calls her applying for the scholarship a “shot in the wind,” she’s nevertheless “blown away” by the fact that she was chosen to be the one eligible applicant from within the STA chapter of the society. Spanish is important to Ryan because it’s part of her heritage, and she strives to “best represent [her] culture” by speaking her native language.

“Spanish will always be a part of who I am and I hope to carry on this language through my career and my future family,” Ryan said.