• Honorable Mentions:

Ilana Kowarski, Hollywood Hills High

Micayla Mancuso, American Heritage School

Layne Kula, North Broward Preparatory

ENGLISH & LITERATURE

EMMA JANASKIE

NORTH BROWARD PREPARATORY SCHOOL

Her work tutoring struggling students led Emma to create a study program to connect at-risk students with her favorite subjects: reading and writing. The program helped 30 foster children, and two foster care centers and several other agencies are considering adopting it.

Emma also founded a creative writing and literary club at her school, which will publish a multilingual literary journal.

She was the first high school student ever published in the prize issue of the Mississippi Review; got an honorable mention for poetry from the National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts; and was her school band drum major.

• Honorable Mentions:

Daniel James Crispino, Jr., University School at Nova Southeastern University

Ashley Van Heel, Blanche Ely High

Amanda Geisler, Hollywood Hills High

FOREIGN LANGUAGE

JANETTE HERNANDEZ

HALLANDALE HIGH SCHOOL

When Janette saw the destruction floods caused in Ecuador, her parents' homeland, she took matters into her own hands. ''I could not just turn the television off and go on with my life,'' she wrote. So she convinced fellow church members, friends and family to donate enough supplies to fill 48 boxes. She also organized a soccer tournament to raise money to help transport the items.

Janette also created a tutoring program for neighborhood children.

In addition, she was elected president of her school's Foreign Language Honor Society, is ranked third in her class of 301 and served as manager of her school's soccer and cross country teams.

• Honorable Mentions:

Beatriz Oliveira, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High

Yves Joel Kenol Elifils, Coconut Creek High

Luis Arias, Charles W. Flanagan High

GENERAL SCHOLARSHIP

MEGAN BARRON

CORAL SPRINGS HIGH SCHOOL

Rather than be defeated by her debilitating illness -- Epidermolysis Bullosa, which produces blisters all over the body -- Megan used it to inspire other kids with severe skin disorders.

As a youth, Megan attended American Academy of Dermatology camps. When she was older, she returned as a counselor, hoping to persuade other kids what she had come to believe: ''That I didn't have to settle for the fate my disability banished me to.''

Despite having difficulty writing, Megan completed 13 Advanced Placement classes. She is a National AP Scholar with Distinction, received a Florida International University book award and won a poetry contest at the Broward Literary Fair.

• Honorable Mentions:

Jefferson Sanchez, Hollywood Hills High

Rohit Thummalapalli, American Heritage School

Jacqueline Babb, Pompano Beach High

JOURNALISM

BRITTANY YOUNG

NORTH BROWARD PREPARATORY SCHOOL

On a visit to Africa with her mother when she was 14, Brittany was struck by the deplorable conditions she encountered at a South African school, where 1,200 students were housed in buildings with no running water.

Back home, she created a website and gathered enough support to build not only a well, but a clinic and library as well. She and friends returned to chronicle the school's progress in a documentary, Water, and formed a nonprofit organization that has brought wells to four other schools.

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