Spencerville High School senior Kiarah Dodds speaks after accepting a $300 Accepting the Challenge of Excellence award from the Lima Exchange Club Monday at the Lima Eagles. Dodds also won an additional $500 for bring the top recipient out of all schools in Allen County.
Craig Kelly | The Lima News
LIMA — Awards in high school are nothing new, with top athletes, artists and academic performers earning accolades. On Monday, a different set of Allen County students were honored, not for their play on the court or the stage, nor their performance on exams, but for their perseverance amidst adversity.
Twelve students were honored Monday by the Lima Exchange Club with the Accepting the Challenge of Excellence Award, each student chosen by school guidance counselors.
“We come along as schools in Allen County and select students we feel meet that criteria,” Spencerville High School counselor Jim Baumgartner said.
The winner from each school in the county received the award, which included a $300 check. One overall winner is selected from the group to receive an additional $500. This year, that recipient was Kiarah Dodds, a senior at Spencerville. Dodds’ childhood was difficult from an early age as she was removed from the care of her parents at the age of 4.
“Thus began Kiarah’s journey through a series of temporary homes, each one fraught with its own challenges,” Baumgartner said during the award presentation. “First, she found solace with her grandparents, who did their best to offer her love and security amidst the chaos. However, circumstances soon changed, and Kiarah soon found herself bouncing between the care of her sister and her boyfriend’s grandmother.”
Baumgartner then went on to describe the hardships that life brought for Dodds, including living at times with no running water or heat or sharing a living space with bats constantly fluttering overhead.
“I would say my sophomore year was the hardest year I’ve had in my entire life,” she said. “I was in four different homes, I believe, and at one point I told myself, ‘I’m done.’ I chose to give up on school. I would skip school every single day or I would go home.”
Dodds credits her faith, friends and family with giving her the strength to overcome that discouragement during that low point in her life.
“I’m a firm believer in Jesus, so I knew God was telling me it was time to pick myself up,” she said. “So I picked myself up off the floor and I started going to school again. I got a job, and I just focused on myself. I think anyone, especially those my age, can do that, but I will say I couldn’t have done it without my siblings or my best friends.”
Dodds now holds a 3.41 GPA at Spencerville and plans to study nursing with the hopes of becoming a pediatric nurse.
“She has goals in life,” Baumgartner said. “We’re just so proud of her, and she’s a role model to our younger students.”
Accepting the Challenge of Excellence Award Winners
• Allen East: Kennedi Shilling
• Apollo Career Center: Aubrey Gierhart
• Bath: Jordan Wallen
• Delphos Jefferson: James Hasting
• Delphos St. John’s: Luke Bockey
• Elida: Ethan Lawson
• Lima Central Catholic: Isaac Pennington
• Lima Senior: Hezakiha Washington
• Perry: Alyvia Fox
• Shawnee: Adebowale Olujimi
• Temple Christian: Kenzie Bassett
