Talent from A to Zaragoza
Courtesy photo Marie Zaragoza, center, was named the 2018 Distinguished Young Woman of Coeur d’Alene Saturday at the Kroc Center. Zaragoza received the accompanying scholarship. The runner-up scholarship was awarded to Ashley Kaitz, right, and the finalist scholarship went to Ellie Heisey.
COEUR d’ALENE — Marie Zaragoza was named the 2018 Distinguished Young Woman of Coeur d’Alene last Saturday night at the program’s showcase at the Kroc Center.
D.Y.W. is a program combining the chance to win college scholarships with an opportunity that offers life skills that prepare young women for success after high school. Judges evaluated the participants in five categories during the showcase, which included scholastics, interview, talent, fitness and self-expression. These categories represent the ways the young women of D.Y.W. are well-rounded members of the Coeur d’Alene community.
“I went in thinking the most I would get was some scholarship money,” Zaragoza said. “I have so much excitement to be able to represent these other girls and what Coeur d’Alene stands for.”
Zaragoza won scholarships in the scholastic and interview categories. The scholastic category evaluated the participant’s cumulative GPA, while the interview category involved a private, 10-minute interview between the participant and the judges Saturday afternoon.
“While I was waiting, it felt like the longest 10 minutes of my life, and the interview itself was the fastest 10 minutes of my life,” Zaragoza said.
She prepared for her interview by looking up sample interview questions and had her parents count the number of times she said “um.”
Each of the categories carries a different weight, and the scholastic and interview scholarships carry the most weight out of the five. The other three categories judged the participants’ talents, fitness, poise and public speaking abilities during the program in the Kroc Center’s performance venue. Overall, Zaragoza won $2,100 in scholarships.
Zaragoza will compete in these categories against distinguished young women from across the state of Idaho as Coeur d’Alene’s representative in the D.Y.W. of Idaho Scholarship Program in the fall.
The D.Y.W. committee raised $7,000 from sources in the community to fund the 15 scholarships awarded to participants. The program recognized Rayna Solberg, Kellie Lovelace and Saprina Schueller for their hard work on the D.Y.W. committee.