Sidney's Von Seggern earns 'Believers and Achievers' statewide award

Sara Von Seggern, a senior at Sidney High School, has been honored with the 2014-2015 Believers and Achievers award.

Believers and Achievers is a statewide program designed by the Nebraska School Activities Association and U.S. Bank to give recognition to Nebraska's future leaders. It rewards high school students in Nebraska for their excellence in academics and participation in NSAA activities.

From the 437 nominees from NSAA member schools this year, only 48 finalists were chosen. These students show a commitment to citizenship, school involvement and community projects, and represent the best of Nebraska's high schools.

Von Seggern is one of those 48.

"I'm super excited," she said. "I feel very honored to have been chosen. It's kind of surreal since nobody from Sidney's ever gotten the award."

Each NSAA member school can nominate two people. Von Seggern said that just before school started, Activities Director Mike Brockhaus called her to come to the school, gave her some information to fill out, had her write an essay and then sent it in.

The chosen students have a grade point average of at least 3.75 and have demonstrated a high level of participation and service.

Von Seggern is an honor roll student with a 4.0 grade point average, and manages to succeed in numerous activities.

"I'm in volleyball, I've been a basketball manager, I run track and I'm on the SRTV – the Stream Team," she said. "We go to different events and live-stream them so that parents or people at home can watch the event and not actually be there."

Von Seggern is also in the National Honor Society, she's the class vice-president and a member of the science and Spanish clubs.

As for activities outside of school, she participates in plenty of those, too.

"I've been a part of different community organizations," she said. "I've helped with the ARC (Association of Retarded Citizens). They put on dances and stuff and do different meals. I've done the Arbor Day tree give away, I volunteered for the BPO Does and Legion Auxiliary."

She is also a youth tutoring volunteer, and a church volunteer. Her hobbies include sports, photography "just for fun," and reading classic books such as "The Great Gatsby" and "Pride and Prejudice."

Von Seggern and the other 47 finalists will be recognized at NSAA State Championships throughout the year and will be pictured on bi-monthly posters sent to all NSAA member schools and posted in U.S. Bank branches across the state.

The finalists will be invited to attend an end-of-the-year banquet in June, where eight of them will be selected to receive scholarships of $500.

The 18-year old shared some advice for people hoping to follow in her footsteps.

"Work hard," she said. "Be the best that you can be. Always give your best effort, whether it be school or sports or whatever you love to do. Just go out and do your best. Hard work pays off."