Student Spotlight

Ashlin Gates a senior at Riverton High School is an extremely motivated student who has taken the steps necessary to accomplish her goals.  She maintains a 3.9 GPA, has taken numerous advanced placement classes and has passed five AP tests.   Ashlin has earned an Advanced Placement International Diploma through College Board.  She was awarded a scholarship through the National Security Initiative for Youth through the United States State Department to study Persian in Tajikistan. She has been learning to speak and master the Persian language over the course of two years.  She was involved in a cultural and language immersion program in Tajikistan where she lived in a Persian home and attended Persian language classes.   After returning back to the United States, she took and passed an oral proficiency exam for Persian and became an alumni of the United States State Department.  She is very interested in languages and is in AP Spanish this year but has also studied Mandarin Chinese. She has been a member of the Model European Union and Interact clubs.  In 2014, she attended classes through the Startalk program at UCLA for Persian language studies where she earned the equivalent of one year of high school credit.   Her plans are to attend a college outside of the state of Utah where she can continue her study of Persian and related languages.