Each year, our Woodinville Chamber provides the Woodinville Chamber of Commerce Business Scholarship Award to a deserving student in our community, with help from the Scholarship Foundation of Northshore. This year’s recipient is Daphne D’sa, a senior at Woodinville High School who plans are to attend the University of Washington.
Please join us in congratulating Daphne on being named this years Woodinville Chamber of Commerce Business Scholarship recipient!
Here is a bit more about Daphne:
At the end of my freshman year, I received the Leota Math award for exemplifying grit and determination through my work ethic. During my sophomore year, I participated in the PTA Reflections program in the visual arts category. My artwork, titled “Reaching Out with Love” depicted Mother Teresa with two hands reaching for each other overlayed overtop, to symbolize her message of how attainable it is to serve and connect with the people around us, and the piece was selected as a Washington State Finalist. As a junior, I was voted MVP of the badminton team by my coaches and teammates and received the Captain’s award as well. Academically, I was recognized as a National Merit Commended Scholar and an AP Scholar with Distinction from scoring well on the 7 AP exams I have taken so far.
I joined the lady Falcon’s badminton team the year it was introduced to the Northshore high schools and have thoroughly enjoyed playing the sport due to the positive atmosphere and high energy of the team. I have been a varsity player all three years I have been on the team, and am looking forward to a great season ahead this year. In 2017, I competed in the KingCo badminton tournament as the #1 Doubles team with my partner, and last year I competed at KingCo in the #1 Singles bracket.
Apart from sports, I have been very involved with the business program at WHS. I joined FBLA in freshman year and have competed in events such as Website Design, E-Business, Emerging Business Issues, and Global Business. These events have helped me explore the business world and develop professional skills as well as the ability to network. In 2018, my partners and I placed 1st at Nationals in Social Media Campaign, and last year, we placed 4th at Nationals for Publication Design. Through DECA, I have further improved my presentation and critical thinking skills by competing in roleplay events. As a first-year marketing student, I placed 2nd in the Food Marketing Series at the International Career Development Conference in Atlanta, Georgia.
Furthermore, I have been an inducted National Honor Society member throughout high school and have helped incoming freshman prepare for and transition to high school by being a trained Link Leader
One way I have supported my local community is by designing websites for local entrepreneurs, both young and old, that enable them to achieve their dreams and scale their impact to a much larger audience.
A woman I’ve worked with, Sue Mills, had been retired for a year when she realized the loneliness she experienced was something she shared in common with many other retirees. She founded Hearts of Whidbey, an organization that connects people “one heart at a time” by creating personalized fabric hearts to give away. After Sue explained her concept to my FBLA partners and myself, we created a logo, developed Hearts of Whidbey’s brand, and designed a website to help the organization touch hearts across the nation and equip Sue with the tools she needs to keep improving lives.
Additionally, a classmate of mine, Zyad Elgohary, launched the startup app “Help” that connects people with services from a variety of industries, from house cleaning to yard work. I designed a website for his business that helps him reach his goal of using software to enhance people’s daily lives nationwide. I got to know Zyad by being lab partners with him in AP Computer Science last year, and his positive attitude and passion for teaching himself code have inspired me to learn HTML, so I can design sites from scratch in the future and develop skills that build on my newfound passion for creating websites.
One of my favorite ways to serve my school community is by volunteering as a speech club mentor at the middle school I attended. Speech club is important to me because when I was a member, participating in this club helped me develop confidence, and each year I see similar growth in the students I work with.
Over the past two years, I served as the co-president of Woodinville FBLA and led a chapter of over 90 members. My responsibilities include preparing a weekly agenda for officer team meetings, carrying out fundraisers, planning club meetings, and ensuring my chapter is prepared for regional, state, and national conferences.
One example of how I support my chapter is my involvement in our annual Holiday Tree Fundraiser, where my officer team and I are in charge of finding sponsors from local Woodinville businesses to decorate Christmas trees with store merchandise, gift cards, and ornaments. By running this crucial fundraiser twice, I learned about communication, marketing, and professionalism as I coordinated with managers at Haggen and Great Clips, formulated a PowerPoint slideshow that my to help my fellow officers pitch our fundraising request to new businesses, and coordinated set-up logistics with all parties involved. This year, we fundraised $1400 from tree sales to put towards competition expenses for our chapter, which is a $600 increase from the previous year.
Additionally, I have furthered my impact in FBLA by initiating an Event Showcase meeting in my chapter where older members present National qualifying FBLA presentations to give new members tips on how to succeed in competitions. I also ran a similar workshop at the FBLA Fall Leadership Conference, attended by high schools in the West Central Region, including all Northshore high schools.
While FBLA has been my main focus, I have also shown leadership to the WHS community by being captain of the women’s badminton team, a DECA mentor, and a Link Leader. My teammates and classmates describe me as someone they can always depend on to be encouraging, hardworking, and thoughtful, and my experiences serving in these areas has helped me develop a greater appreciation for leaders in my own life.
