Russell named Elks top student

Amaya Russell has been selected as a Sandpoint Elks Lodge No. 1376 student of the month for the Lake Pend Oreille School District.

To be selected as an Elks student of the month, students must meet guidelines for character, citizenship, service, scholarship and leadership.

The Elks actively seeks to reward youth through many different programs including scholarship awards, Hoop Shoot tournaments, dictionary donations to third graders, drug awareness programs and many other activities and programs.

Sandpoint Elks Lodge awards thousands of dollars in scholarships and local students also received an additional money in state and national Elk scholarships. The Elks are the third-largest awarder of scholarships in the county and several students have received large scholarships from the state and national level of Elks.

Russell is the daughter of Tamara Larson and Nie Russell. Since enrolling at Lake Pend Oreille High School in 2022, Amaya has maintained all As and Bs. Her passion is volleyball. She was on the JV at Sandpoint High School and this year on the varsity volleyball team.

Russell earned numerous awards in volleyball: senior year MVP, junior year MVP; awarded All-League in her conference and invited to the sixth annual Inland Northwest Volleyball Showcase.

While at Lake Pend Oreille High School, Amaya received numerous Student of the Month awards, participated in school­ wide activities such as selling tickets for the annual wood raffle, community clean-ups and promoting the Food Bank.

Russell enjoys the art, culinary, creative writing and physical education classes. Her hobbies are skiing, swimming, kayaking and biking. Her ambition is to pursue a degree in a law or investigative career. Russell praised the LPO staff for all their one-on-one help. School officials said she will be missed when she graduates in June.