 Two Brainerd High School seniors have been chosen for a prestigious award that recognizes students who excel in academic, sports and the arts. Taya Persson and Renson Collie were awarded the triple-A award for their commitment to academics, excellence and the arts. Collie has been actively involved in football, baseball, robotics, band and the knowledge bowl. Persson has excelled on the tennis team, as well as in the orchestra and with graphic design. It's an award that I've heard about a lot in the past, so it's really cool to be selected for that. Yeah, it's just a really big honor. I think it's really cool that I was actually the only one eligible as a male, so I thought that was really cool and it just made me feel really good. The triple-A award was established in 1988 and is sponsored by the Minnesota State High School League. Every school in Minnesota is able to select one female and one male winner that demonstrates success and achievement in academics, athletics and the arts. The winners from each school advance to a regional and then a state competition against high schools from across Minnesota. I think what this award tries to do is capture what it means to be a really well-rounded high school student and then to do it in such an extraordinary way to really to find success and to find achievement in kind of all of these things. I just think it really identifies a pretty select group of kids. The regional competition will be held on January 31st in St. Cloud with the statewide winners being announced at the Minnesota State High School Basketball Tournament in March. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.