Schools
Whiz Kids: Eastside Catholic Students Honored by the Seahawks
Malia Bachesta and Joe Stoutt were honored for their community service work.
Each week, at least during the academic year, Sammamish Patch will seek suggestions from readers for individual kids, youth groups, teens, and even sports teams who wow us with their accomplishments.
For the week ending Friday, Oct. 14, we congratulate Malia Bachesta and Joe Stoutt for their recent honor.
Name, age: Malia Bachesta, 17.
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School and Neighborhood: Malia is a senior at . She lives in Sammamish.
Accomplishments: Malia was recently selected as a finalist in the Seahawk’s Leadership Challenge and was awarded a $1,000 scholarship.
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The Seahawk’s Leadership Challenge is a leadership development program for high school varsity athletes. The program promotes involvement in charitable causes and rewards community services.
A second Eastside Catholic student, Joe Stoutt, was also selected as a finalist, giving Eastside Catholic two of the 12 finalists.
Seahawk’s Leadership Challenge finalists attended a two-day leadership conference at Qwest Field in July, which included seminars and a celebration dinner. To top it all off, finalists received three complimentary tickets to a Seahawks game and took part in a scholarship award ceremony on the field.
“I really enjoyed it,” Malia said, adding that the experience was unique.
Malia’s older sister had previously been honored by the Seahawk’s Leadership Challenge and is proud that they’ve both won the scholarship.
“It was kind of cool to get it as well,” Malia said.
Key to awesomeness: Malia, a varsity soccer and lacrosse player at Eastside Catholic School, is involved with multiple community service programs. She mentors disabled kids with Athletes for Kids, participates in Young Life at Eastside Catholic, another group that works with kids, and is part of the Interact Club at Eastside Catholic, a Branch of Rotary International.
“Serving is a way that I really find fulfillment,” Malia said.
Looking to the future, Malia is considering studying communications and sociology. She is applying to several east coast schools and hopes to one day work with a non-profit group.
“I’m very excited,” said Malia.