The 2014 Academic All-Stars: front row left; Halston Field, Ashley Ebeck, Alex O'Brien, Thomas Westbrook and Cassidy Markley. In back are Teri Huslig, left, Wyatt Hofstra and Nick Joslyn. Not pictured are Devany West and Alicia Cotsoradis.

Each year since 1997, the Lawrence Journal-World has sponsored the Academic All Stars competition to showcase the best and brightest graduating seniors from Lawrence and surrounding communities.

The students are nominated by their counselors and principals, including both public and private schools. The applications are then reviewed by a team of judges and the top 10 are then selected based on their school transcripts, scholastic honors and achievements, extracurricular activities, community involvement, and an essay they are asked to submit.

The top 10 are treated to a luncheon held in their honor. From the top 10 one is selected as the overall winner and given a $500 scholarship to the school of their choice.

Over the years, the competition has provided to be a sneak preview of the future leaders of tomorrow. Previous team members have gone on to careers as doctors and lawyers, artists and writers, college professors, school teachers and a wide variety of other professions.

Alicia Cotsoradis: 2014 Academic All-Stars

Alicia Cotsoradis

Alicia Cotsoradis has always had a soft spot in her heart for animals. Whether it’s a stray dog, or even a worm washed up on a dry sidewalk, she says she’s always felt compelled to rescue them.

“Even spiders, which epitomize my biggest fear, somehow persuade me to spare them,” writes the Bishop Seabury Academy scholar. “I refuse to kill spiders.”

But Cotsoradis’s passion for animals extends beyond those she sees in distress. For about the last year, she’s been working at Wakarusa Veterinary Hospital and, although she hasn’t chosen a college yet, plans to major in biology and pursue a career in veterinary sciences.

But animals haven’t been her only passion in high school. She’s also been active on Seabury’s varsity tennis, soccer, cross country and forensics teams while serving as president of Future Business Leaders of America and as photography editor of the yearbook.

Her academic honors include being named a Kansas Honors Scholar, awarded to the top 10 percent of each graduating class; Magna Cum Laude for outstanding performance on the National Latin Exam; and the Smith College Book Award.

In her spare time, she enjoys tennis, photography, painting, volunteering, pilates, reading and learning guitar.

School: Bishop Seabury Academy

Grade-point average: 4.45

Class rank: (School does not rank students.)

Parents: Constantine and Shannon Cotsoradis

College and career plans: To pursue a career in veterinary science. Undecided about which college to attend.

Ashley Ebeck: 2014 Academic All-Stars

Ashley Ebeck

One of Ashley Ebeck’s favorite hobbies is talking business with her dad. Family car rides consist of Ebeck adding up, in her head, the interest earned on her father’s financial statements. Phone conversations often end with her dad talking about opportunities to defer interest or establish a new line of credit.

That love of business propelled the Wellsville High School student to join the Future Business Leaders of America, through which she has participated in several conferences and won numerous awards. Not surprisingly, Ebeck intends to attend the Kansas State University School of Business Administration, where she will study marketing and leadership.

Ebeck learned an important lesson at one of those Future Business Leaders of America conferences. She and her partner were waiting patiently as the qualifiers for nationals were announced, crossing their fingers that all their hard work wasn’t for naught.

Their names weren’t on the list. And Ebeck, who had always been a great student seemingly without trying, got to experience a feeling that was foreign to her: failure.

“Being able to accept failure to was once my biggest challenge and has now become my most priceless asset,” she said. “Winning is enjoyable, but if you never fail, what do you really gain?”

Ebeck is also a Kansas Honors Scholar and star volleyball and softball player who has been involved in numerous student organizations and community activities.

School: Wellsville High School

Grade-point average: 4.0

Class rank: 1

Parents: Joseph and Terry Ebeck

College and career plans: Attend the Kansas State University School of Business Administration, major in marketing and minor in leadership studies.

Halston Field: 2014 Academic All-Stars

Halston Field

Academic excellence isn’t enough for Halston Field, although she has shown plenty of that during high school. Faith is what sustains this Tonganoxie High School scholar.

“I live to serve and honor my Savior, Jesus Christ, and am continually amazed by the love and grace He extends,” she writes.

Throughout high school, Halston has devoted much of her time in service toward others, whether it’s volunteering at Shawnee Community Services, a food pantry that serves needy people in Johnson and Wyandotte counties; contributing to relief efforts after the Joplin, Mo., tornado in 2011; or serving at House of Hope, a residential group home for troubled teenage girls.

While doing that, Halston still found time to devote to her studies, earning a perfect 4.0 grade average and ranking first in her class. In addition to classes, she has been active in speech and debate, cross country, pep clubs and dance teams, the Foreign Language Club and National Honor Society, just to name a few.

Field gives much of the credit for her success to the teachers she’s had in school, and she now hopes to pursue a teaching career herself.

“Over the past four years, I have discovered the incredible impact teachers can have on the lives of their students,” she writes. “I have grown tremendously in a variety of capacities thanks to teachers who have taken the time to truly invest in my success, both inside and outside the classroom.”

School: Tonganoxie High School

Grade-point average: 4.0

Class rank: 1 of 156

Parents: Not available

College and career plans: To attend Kansas State University and Manhattan Bible College simultaneously, pursuing degrees in secondary education and Bible and leadership studies.

Wyatt Hofstra: 2014 Academic All-Stars

Wyatt Hofstra

Like most teenagers, Wyatt Hofstra enjoys playing and watching sports, playing video games and listening to music. But a quick look at his academic record and list of other activities might leave one wondering where he would find the time for such leisurely pursuits.

In four years of high school, Hofstra not only lettered in three sports — football, basketball and baseball — he also performed in band and choir, competed on the Scholars Bowl team, and was active in National Honor Society and Future Business Leaders of America.

His academic honors include being named a Kansas Honors Scholar and Governors Scholar his senior year. He made the Principal’s Honor Roll all four years and received awards for outstanding achievement his junior year for both U.S. and world history.

Outside of school, Hofstra contributed many volunteer hours working on FBLA projects, his church youth group, youth sports leagues and community clean-up projects.

Hofstra credits his father for being the biggest influence in his life. “He has always done everything in his power to provide for my family and me,” he says. “He supports me by coming to all of my activities and encouraging me in the decisions I make. I want to model my faith and leadership after his.”

After high school, Wyatt says he wants to study for a career in sports management but is still weighing his options for college.

School: Oskaloosa High School

Grade-point average: 4.0

Class rank: 1 of 32

Parents: Nathan and Kayla Hofstra

College and career plans: Considering Baker University, Kansas Wesleyan or Emporia State University. Interested in sports management and computers.

Teri Huslig: 2014 Academic All-Stars

Teri Huslig

Teri Huslig has long been fascinated with teeth and oral health. The Veritas Christian School student has helped the pull the teeth of friends, siblings and cousins. Now, as she prepares to graduate high school, she plans to use that interest in the human mouth for good.

“I want to become an oral surgeon and help those in my community and other countries who do not have access to dental care on their own,” she said.

Huslig has already had a leg up, working at Edwards & Wilson Periodontics in Lawrence and being mentored by dentist Angela Wilson.

“Dr. Wilson has encouraged me in times of difficulty and much stress,” Huslig said. “She also has taught me many things about dentistry, periodontics specifically, which will help me have a head start as I begin my college preparation for dental school.”

The teen has many interests besides teeth, however: She is a star volleyball player who has also participated in track, band, choir, drama and student council. She is active in her church and, through her youth group, has volunteered in inner-city St. Louis and Camp Barnabas in Missouri. She has also served at O’Connell Youth Ranch in Lawrence as well as a local nursing home.

School: Veritas Christian School

Grade-point average: 4.0

Class rank: 1

Parents: Carl and Kelli Huslig

College and career plans: Attend either Southwestern Oklahoma State University on a volleyball scholarship or Kansas University on a track scholarship, with the goal of becoming an oral surgeon focused on treating the underserved.

Nicholas Joslyn: 2014 Academic All-Stars

Nicholas Joslyn

Even though he has yet to graduate high school, Nicholas Joslyn is already a proven leader.

Entering his senior year at Baldwin High School, Joslyn’s goal for the soccer team he was captain of was simple: “I wanted this team to become the best in school history,” he said.

So he created an environment in practices to match the intensity of games. He regularly reminded his fellow team members of practice times. He focused on motivating his more lethargic teammates.

Joslyn’s hard work paid off when the team made the Kansas State Final Four for the first time in its history.

The teen credits his father, a college professor and the soccer team’s coach, for instilling in him the importance of leadership. On car rides, the two often discuss the traits underlying success: motivation and diligence. “I found that I prefer an environment of high motivation and diligence, and it was the conversations with my father that prompted this realization,” Joslyn said.

Joslyn is a Governor’s Scholar, Kansas Honors Scholar and candidate for the 2014 U.S. Presidential Scholars Program. He has won state competitions in math, journalism, engineering and bridge. He has been class president the past two years, as well as an avid volunteer in the community. He plans to study mathematics and chemistry at Simpson College before becoming a research assistant upon graduation.

In whatever he does, Joslyn strives for perfection.

“Academically, I feel the need to learn as much as possible, and athletically, I feel the need to become the best,” he said. “It is this innate accountability that helps propel me to academic and extracurricular success.”

School: Baldwin High School

Grade-point average: 4.0

Class rank: 1

Parents: Mark and Mary Lisa Joslyn

College and career plans: Attend Simpson College to study mathematics and chemistry and, upon graduation, become a research scientist .

Cassidy Markley: 2014 Academic All-Stars

Cassidy Markley

Cassidy Markley loves music, and wants to share her passion for rhythms and melodies with others.

The Baldwin City high school student plans to attend Kansas University in the fall to study music education in the hopes of becoming a high school band director.

Her relationship with music started long ago. As a young child, she taught herself to play, on a toy keyboard, the nursery rhymes her parents sang to her. She started piano lessons at the age of 7, and by high school had learned to play the clarinet, drums and oboe. She was a member not only of the marching band, but the concert band, pep band and concert choir, and has participated in numerous music camps across the state.

“Music serves as a way for me to convey my thoughts, emotions and ideas, and brightens my life in every aspect,” she said. “I believe my natural love and talent for music is the strongest and most valuable feature that makes me who I am.”

One of Markley’s biggest inspirations was her fourth- and fifth-grade teacher, Tamara Lamb, whose lessons have stayed with her. Lamb’s persistence helped turn mathematics from something Markley struggled with to her strongest subject.

“Looking back now, through the course of those two difficult and awkward years of my life, Tamara Lamb taught a lesson that is incredibly difficult to convey to 10- and 11-year-old children: to love knowledge,” Markley said.

Besides music, Markley also enjoys photography and digital photo editing, reading fantasy novels and memoirs, and drawing and writing.

Markley was a Kansas Honor Scholar and has been accepted into the honors program at KU. She was heavily involved in student clubs, athletics and volunteer work in high school, and has received several awards at statewide band and orchestra competitions.

School: Baldwin High School

Grade-point average: 4.0

Class rank: 1

Parents: Kevin and Lori Markley

College and career plans: Attend Kansas University in the fall and study music education, in the hopes of becoming a high-school band director.

Alexander O'Brien: 2014 Academic All-Stars

Alexander O’Brien

Perseverance has been Alexander O’Brien’s key to success, and he has shown a lot of it during his four years at Lawrence High School.

As the top student in his class, Alexander excelled in every academic area, earning places on the school’s honor roll, performing in choir, being active in numerous clubs and organizations, and winning scholarships from both Kansas University and Kansas State University.

Those would be notable achievements for any student, but they are all the more remarkable for a student bound to a wheelchair due to Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.

“I have had to overcome many challenges at home and at school to achieve my academic success,” O’Brien writes. “When I set goals for myself I persevere until I have achieved my goals. Even when people tell me that I may not be able to participate in an activity that a person who had the ability to walk would be able to do, I attempt it and I usually find a way that I can do it.”

Sometimes that involves finding other ways to participate in activities he enjoys, such as serving as manager for the LHS football team. He also enjoys flying model airplanes and playing vehicle simulators.

O’Brien says his parents have also played a key role in supporting and encouraging his activities, including his desire to work with the football team.

“One way that my parents supported me in this activity was that my mom drove me to the away games because the school did not request a wheelchair bus,” he said. “My parents came to the football games even when it was cold, hot, rainy, or stormy to support me.”

School: Lawrence High School

Grade-point average: 4.0

Class rank: 1 of 383

Parents: Patrick and Crystal O’Brien

College and career plans: To attend either Kansas University or Kansas State University to major in aerospace engineering and pursue a career in aircraft design and engineering.

Devany West: 2014 Academic All-Stars

Devany West

The best advice Devany West ever got came from a cartoon science teacher, Mrs. Frizzle from “The Magical School Bus”: “Take chances, make mistakes and get messy!”

“I’m not afraid of the unknown and enjoy activities that force me to abandon my inhibitions,” the Free State High School student said. “Taking Mrs. Frizzle’s advice has allowed me to do what I love and just be me.”

As it turns out, West has many loves: ballet, playing the French horn, reading, writing, hiking. She has studied poetry, advanced mathematics and German — all while still in high school. She has been an AP Scholar with Honor, Kansas Honor Scholar and National Merit Finalist. She has also volunteered in a biomaterials lab at Kansas University, and plans to attend Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she will study biological engineering.

One of the most meaningful moments of her life, though, came when she was volunteering, as she often does, at the Midnight Farm therapeutic horseback riding center in Baldwin City. One day, she was walking next to a 6-year-old boy named Jacob, who had autism, as he rode horseback. At one point, the instructor told everyone to stop so she could check on one of the riders. That’s when Jacob turned to her, looked her in the eye and gave her a big smile. West believes it was his way of letting her know he appreciated her help.

“The moment lasted all of a few seconds, but that lesson at Midnight Farm was a huge mental turning point for me,” West said. “We can coat words like ‘compassion’ and ‘understanding’ in as many layers of cliche as we want, but it took a real experience for me to finally get that differences don’t matter. We’re all people, we all want to be understood, and we should all remember to think of others in the way that we think of ourselves.”

School: Free State High School

Grade-point average: 4.0

Class rank: 1

Parents: Agnes Walsh and Craig West

College and career plans: Attend Massachusetts Institute of Technology and study biological engineering.