National Redefining Ready! Scholarship Awarded to Local Senior High School Student

Alexandria, Va. – Aug. 23, 2017 – Marin Sasaki, of Orting High School in Orting, WA, is the Region 1 Winner of the first Redefining Ready! National Scholarship.

The national competition, sponsored by AASA, The School Superintendents Association, and Hobsons, the company behind Naviance, asked students to tell the world in a 30-second Twitter video how they are ready for college and careers beyond a single test score.

Sasaki’s creative video displays her involvement and leadership in AP classes, volleyball and community service. She will be attending the University of Washington this fall to study pharmacy.

“America’s high schools are filled with innovators and solution makers. Our contest winners exemplify that,” said Daniel A. Domenech, AASA Executive Director. “We congratulate those students who participated in our scholarship competition. We wish them well as they pursue lifelong goals and dreams as they enter life beyond high school.”

“We are so pleased to partner with AASA on the Redefining Ready! National Scholarship competition. The responses were overwhelming,” said Patricia Gagnon, Hobsons’ General Manager for Naviance. “The contest gave students an opportunity to demonstrate their plans mapping out their future and what they intend to achieve.”

Sasaki’s entry was chosen by an AASA and Hobsons executive leadership committee, which included school district leaders from all over the country. As a regional winner, she will receive $2,000. Entries were received from graduating seniors across the United States.

The contest is based on the Redefining Ready! initiative, which was launched by AASA in 2016, and supports the idea that students are more than just a standardized test score; it aims to redefine college, career and life readiness by using multiple measures to assess students’ postsecondary potential.

The scholarship asked America’s graduating seniors to share how they are ready for postsecondary success according to the Redefining Ready! metrics. Along with the 30-second video, entrants submitted a 250-word short essay, creatively describing how they have redefined ready through high school academics, extracurriculars and workplace experiences.

In addition to the Region 1 Winner, there were 15 other winners: one national first place winner, one national runner-up, six other regional winners, and seven regional runner-ups. Regions are based on AASA’s Governing Board, which can be seen here: http://www.aasa.org/content.aspx?id=1392.

To see the video, please visit https://www.redefiningready.org/national-scholarship/.

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To learn more about Redefining Ready!, please visit www.redefiningready.org or email redefiningready@aasa.org.

About Hobsons
Hobsons helps students identify their strengths, explore careers, create academic plans, match to best-fit educational opportunities, and reach their education and life goals. Through our solutions, we enable thousands of educational institutions to improve college and career planning, admissions and enrollment management, and student success and advising for millions of students around the globe. Hobsons works with more than 12,000 schools, colleges, and universities and serves more than 13 million students.

About AASA
AASA, The School Superintendents Association, founded in 1865, is the professional organization for more than 13,000 educational leaders in the United States and throughout the world. AASA’s mission is to support and develop effective school system leaders who are dedicated to the highest quality public education for all children. For more information, visit www.aasa.org.