April 5, 2013 –
What do you do when you’ve reached the end of your high school career and it looks as if you’ve accomplished so much already on the academic and athletic side of things? How do you stand out from the rest of the crowd? How do you separate yourself from others with strong GPA’s and great athletic accomplishments? Believe it or not, our first Athlete of the Week for the month of April may have found an answer to that question. Emily Cragon is not your everyday student-athlete roaming the halls of Huntsville High School. She’s unique in the fact that she sports one of the highest Grade Point Averages in her graduating class with a 4.28 GPA and has maintained that average well-above the 4.0 peak for all four years of high school. She’s heavily involved with school organizations, such as the National Honors Society, the Spanish Honor Society and the Mathematics Honors Society (Mu Apha Theta). She’s found success by turning her focus to the Arts and Sciences. Emily has received awards for achievement in Spanish and Chemistry, and also for Citizenship, which she earned for outstanding efforts at her school. Emily is a premiere cross-country runner for Huntsville High School and has been an intricate part of the varsity team since she joined the squad as a freshman. She was named Captain of her team her Junior and Senior years and reached the mile-split runners state elite level her junior year. Both her academic and athletic accomplishments are quite noteworthy, but the difference with Emily Cragon is how she gives back to not just her community, but how she carries her philanthropy beyond and across our state. For the past four years, Emily has served on the Appalachian Service Project, which is a Christian-based service organization that travels across lower-income areas of rural communities and helps rebuild or fix housing for underprivileged families. She remains heavily involved with her local church and continues to support local projects, like Manna House and Santa’s Village. Congratulations, Emily!