College is hard enough for most students. To get amazing grades while playing sports and maintaining a social life is taking college life to a whole different level.

Katelyn Sherick of Maple Valley is one of those rare college students who did it all. She received the president’s award from Green River College for all of her accomplishments and hard work.

According to Green River College’s website, this is the highest honor given to graduating students and is presented at the commencement ceremony each year. The person is to be nominated by one of the staff members and the administrators vote on who is most deserving of this award.

Students must have a GPA of 3.75 or higher and must apply for graduation.

Sherick was nominated by her athletic director, Bob Kickner. She received a plaque for her accomplishments.

“I was so surprised to have received this award, but very honored,” Sherick said. “I was just sitting in the audience with everyone else and then they started to do a speech about me and that’s how I found out.”

Sherick said she loves the time that she spent at Green River. She said she’s made many friends and great memories.

Part of the reason she went to Green River is she received a small scholarship for cross country and track. Also knowing she could run for a team helped her make that choice.

During her time at Green River, she not only made friends, but she also learned to focus on school. According to Sherick, college takes a lot effort if you want to do well.

She said one of the hardest parts about college was putting in the effort it takes to get good grades while balancing sports.

“It was a lot of hard work, but I’m excited to continue my education,” she said.

One of Sherick’s favorite memories was getting to meet all of the amazing people that she did.

Green River is also known for having a fairly large international student population and Sherick said she enjoyed meeting many of them, and that it’s been “cool” getting to know them.

Her next adventure in furthering her education is to go to Whitworth University in Spokane. She plans on majoring in elementary education.

“It’s been amazing all around, I’m just really going to miss it,” Sherick said. “I’m just really excited and happy.”