Abbie Hernandez of Marquette Catholic High School and Rowan Parrett of Alton High School were honored as Students of the Month for March by the Alton-Godfrey Rotary Club at the Club’s regular meeting at Gentelin’s Restaurant held on Monday, March 15, 2021.
Students selected for this honor are recognized and presented with an Award at a Rotary Club meeting and are eligible to compete for a $6,000 Scholarship that will be presented to one of the students honored as a “Student of the Month” during the school year.
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Abbie Hernandez is the daughter of Timothy Hernandez and Carrie Stewart of Godfrey. She attended Ss. Peter and Paul Catholic Grade School and is now a senior at Marquette Catholic High School.
Abbie has maintained a GPA above 4.0 while being in a full honors course of study all four years of high school, which led to Abbie being selected as a St. Louis Post-Dispatch “A” Student each year and being inducted into the Rose Morelli chapter of National Honor Society her junior year.
Abbie is extremely active in both Marquette and her community. At Marquette, she is a part of various clubs that include Yearbook, Campus Ministry, Student Ambassadors, Spanish Club, Art Club, and National Honor Society. Within these organizations, she holds multiple leadership positions that include editor-in-chief of the Yearbook, and spirit wear chair and spring service coordinator for National Honor Society. She previously served as the marketing officer for the Student Against Destructive Decisions organization at Marquette. She also serves as the sports and events photographer for the Advertising Department.
Although schoolwork is of utmost importance to her, Abbie has worked for multiple businesses in the area. Abbie has been employed by Duke Bakery since the age of 15. She also works for Logo It, where she helps with off-site apparel creation at events. During the summers, she can be found working as a senior counselor at The Nature Institute. Abbie has also owned her own photography business, Abbie Hernandez Photography, since her freshman year of high school. Her work has been featured in various places around the Riverbend and in multiple publications.
Living out Marquette’s motto of “Serviam”, which means “I will serve”, was one of Abbie’s goals going into high school. She has completed over 500 hours of service within the community since freshman year, mainly at The Nature Institute and Camp Ondessonk. Due to her dedication to service, she has been awarded with two gold level President’s Volunteer Service Awards for her work in outdoor conservation and education.
Abbie plans to attend Southern Illinois University Edwardsville as a member of their honors program to major in Marketing with minors in Spanish and Graphic Design beginning in fall 2021. After college, she hopes to either work for a nonprofit organization or business in the area as their marketing manager or open her own marketing agency that specializes in small businesses.
Rowan is the daughter of Bryan and Stacy Parrett of Godfrey. She is a member of the Alton High School National Honor Society.
She currently has a GPA of 4.636, which places her 9th in a class of over 500 seniors. Rowan has received the Everfi Financial Literacy Award, the Read for a Lifetime Certification and the Illinois Teen Readers’ Choice Certification. She was selected as a Illinois Teen Readers’ Choice Panelist and she was the first AHS student to be selected for this honor.
Even with such a strong academic record, Rowan has found time for other activities at Alton High. She has been the class treasurer for Student Council and has earned the honor of being a member of Mu Alpha Theta, the math honor society. She also is a member of the German Club and the Physics Club.
Rowan loves being a part of the AHS Community, as well as the Alton-Godfrey Community. With this in mind, she has been very active with community service, both in and out of school. Within the schools, she has been very involved with math tutoring for both NHS and Mu Alpha Theta. She has also worked concession stands at football games and done PTG babysitting at Gilson Brown. Outside of school, Rowan helped with sandbagging during the flood of 2019 and has worked at several Arbor Day Festivals for the Godfrey Park and Recreation Department. Lately, she has been working nearly every Saturday to help clean a local church in ways to follow the new Covid guidelines.
In the future, Rowan plans to attend SIUE and major in Accountancy. She wants to get her Bachelors Degree and become a CPA. Then she wants to pursue a Masters Degree in Public Administration with hopes of becoming a non-profit administrator or working in local government.
Rowan Parrett and Abbie Hernandez were presented recognition plaques by club president, Andy Bowen.
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