Alexa Bruick Honored as Youth Rotarian of the Year/Student of the Year by Seward Rotary Club

May 11, 2016

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Alexa Bruick was honored as the Student of the Year/ Youth Rotarian of the Year by the Seward Rotary at the recent Seward High Honors Night on Tuesday, May 10 at the Seward High Theater.  She is the daughter of Jan and Scott Bruick of Seward and a senior at Seward High School.  She was introduced, recognized for her accomplishments and presented with the Rotary scholarship donated by the Seward Rotary.  Her selection was made over the other eleven Youth Rotarian leaders, who were honored and  selected over the last school year, with the selection based on Service, Scholarship, Leadership and Character.  The motto for Rotary is “Service Above Self!”   Alexa contributes numerous hours every week to various service endeavors and participated in endless projects with those in need through various avenues of service, such as five mission trips.  She was also named one of the Volunteers of the Year in special recognition by President Barack Obama this school year!

“One in a million”, scholarly and driven describe Alexa Bruick. Alexa achieves excellence and continues to be a class leader in many, if not every aspect of our high school.  She is a leader academically, as she ranks number one in her class and a member of the Seward High National Honor Society.  She has achieved Honor Roll status every quarter of her high school career.  She also won the Senior Key in a vote by the SHS Faculty for her leadership in the school and in the classroom!

Alexa is a longtime member of the Girl’s Golf team and has been a member of the Varsity Golf team since 2013.

She is a co-captain of our award winning High School Quiz Bowl team and has continued to participate in a variety of academic contests, panels and events.  She has captured various writing awards and continues to generate award winning essays in various competitions and contests on the local and state levels, recently winning the Optimist Essay Contest this last year.  She was also named first runner up at the National Skills USA Contest this last summer at their national conference and won numerous state Skills USA contests.

Alexa is a leader with numerous extracurricular activities.  She has been the Chapter President of the local Skills USA Chapter and currently serving her second term as a State Skills USA officer-serving as the State President for Skills USA-Nebraska.  She represented the school at the Sophomore Pilgrimage at the State Capitol and was a finalist for the HOBY representative for our school. 

Her achievements and honors abound, including top acting honors, as well as capturing numerous top speech awards on the district and state levels. She has worked with me in our annual Play Production competition show, as a lead actress and achieved Outstanding Actress awards at the Conference and District levels. 

Alexa also served as the Co-Captain of the SHS Speech team, won numerous awards and has qualified for the State Speech competition in two events the last two years.  She was a State Medalist in Extemporaneous Speaking this year at the State Speech Contest in Kearney.  She was a finalist in the VFW Voice of Democracy Speech contest and won the District American Legion Speech contest, winning  the American Legion Regional Contest as well and was first runner up at the State American Legion Speech Contest.  Alexa captured the Sweepstakes trophy at the Concordia University Invitational Speech tournament, generating the most participation points of any individual entered.  She was the state and regional representative for the Governor’s Leadership Speech Contest in 2014 as a sophomore!

Alexa’s faith and involvement in her church is very important to her.  She is an active member of St. John Lutheran Church and serves as both a weekly Sunday school teacher and teaches Vacation Bible School sponsored by the church. She is a voice of the youth in the congregation and a leader of the church’s youth group.  She has volunteered for four mission trips to Alaska, the last four summers and attended various regional and national church youth gatherings.  She is a member of the youth Godparent’s weekly meeting/program through her church and readily volunteers for the church’s numerous activities and projects.

She is longtime caregiver to a handicapped/special needs child and exhibits extreme patience and understanding for this child and all the children she works with on a regular basis.  One of her career goals is serving others through sign language and working with the hearing impaired, which testifies to her high level of serving others! She is one of the only ones in the church’s mission experience to return again and again to Alaska to serve the “poorest of the poor” Alaskan natives and spends the year raising funds to fund her expenses for the trip as well.

Alexa also works during the week to supplement her income and help pay for her expenses-working part-time at the Second Closet in Seward. 

She plans to attend  Augustana College in Sioux Falls and become an American Sign Language Interpreter, working with the deaf to assist them in their communication process. 

Her area of “Service Above Self” centers around her work with the children and people of Akiachak, Alaska-serving them for the last four summers in a Christian Missionary Trip sponsored by St. John Lutheran Church in Seward.  She spent four weeks total in small native village of Yu’pik natives, sharing her faith and the Bible in a variety of activities and plans to attend the village again this year in a mission trip.  She has also been a willing volunteer in her church, working with all levels of volunteers in a variety of activities.   

The Seward Rotary Club honors one Youth SHS as the Seward Youth Rotarian of the month-presenting each a “book scholarship, based on academics, leadership and service to others and then selects one student from the twelve and honors that student with a scholarship –naming them the Youth Rotarian of the Year/Student of the Year.