Sterling semifinalists grilled

WEST JORDAN — Two students interested in business walk into a high school ... .

Hold on, it's not the beginning of a bad joke. It's another sterling example of Sterling Scholar contestants.

Both the above-mentioned students are teenagers. One is general manager over a couple of Hogi Yogi stores, has proposed an e-commerce business plan to link culinary suppliers and retailers on the Internet and holds a national office with a student leadership association.

The other has a business finishing residential basements and recently started a business building custom playhouses for children, Miller's Millwork. He obtained start-up capital with a credit card at a construction products store. After his first client paid him, he paid off the card debt, with money left over to buy supplies for the next playhouse.

The question is — among Greg Hudnall, the Hogi Yogi general manager who attends Provo High, Josh Miller of Timpanogos High who runs Miller Millwork and hundreds of other exceptional high school seniors — whom will the judges choose to be the recipients and runners-up of the 2007 Sterling Scholar Awards?

The Sterling Scholar Awards is a scholarship program sponsored by the Deseret Morning News and KSL Television. On Wednesday night, judges spoke to 676 semifinalists divided among Roy, Woods Cross and Copper Hills high schools.

They chose 195 students as finalists in 13 categories ranging from social sciences to speech and drama. The finalists will be announced in Friday's News or are online at deseretnews.com/scholars.

The final judging will be March 7 at Alta High School, and awards will be presented March 28 at Cottonwood High School.

Timpview High math teacher Anne Crosland has been escorting her high school's outstanding students to Sterling Scholar judging events for six years — a job that requires rooting for students before they speak to judges and giving them hugs after.

"They need a lot of reassurance that the judges aren't out to get them," Crosland said.

The judges are higher education, business and community leaders. There will be a different group of judges at Alta High's final round. They study the portfolios each student has submitted that explain his or her coursework, grades and activities, prior to talking with the students in person.