Above: Olivia Dietrich competes at the 2022 U.S. Figure Skating Championships. Photo credit: Jay Adeff.
U.S. Figure Skating will honor 10 dedicated student-athletes who have been named to the 2024 Scholastic Honors Team. Eight additional skaters received honorable mention. These skaters will be recognized during the 2024 Prevagen U.S. Figure Skating Championships.
This marks the 28th year of the Scholastic Honors Team award and scholarship program. In partnership with the Denver Foundation, this award is meant to recognize athletes who have dedicated themselves to their academics, their community involvement and their involvement in figure skating. More than 300 student-athletes have been selected to receive this recognition since the award was established in 1996.
This year’s distinguished team and honorees were selected from a pool of 61 student-athletes. Those names to the Scholastic Honors Team receive a $3,000 scholarship and an additional $1,000 to be donated to a charity of their choice.
Criteria:
- Are eligible skaters and current members of U.S. Figure Skating.
- Are full-time students entering their junior or senior year of high school.
- Are enrolled in a fully accredited secondary school, attend classes and considered full-time by their institution.
- Have maintained at least a 3.4 GPA (based on a 4.0 scale) or 93 percent (based on a 100 percent scale) over the past two academic years.
- Must have competed in at least one U.S. Figure Skating qualifying competition at the novice, junior, or senior level during the past two seasons.
Below are this year's scholarship recipients.
Olivia Dietrich hails from Chevy Chase, Maryland, and represents the Washington FSC. Dietrich is a junior-level ice dance athlete and competed at the 2022 U.S. Championships at the junior level. Dietrich also competed in the 2022 U.S. Championship Series with her ice dance partner Eduard Pylypenko. She attends Sidwell Friends School, where she is a member of its honor society, a member of the Sidwell Student Ambassador Leadership Team and co-founder of the Sidwell Club (a student organization focused on supporting mental health and well-being on campus). Olivia loves to dive into art, both her own and the works of others.
Blake Gilman is a student at Lower Merion High School in Pennsylvania; he represents the Peninsula SC. An ice dancer, Gilman participates in the novice and junior levels. Gilman was selected to represent Team USA at the 2023 Bavarian Open, where he placed second in the advanced novice division with partner Julia Epps. Gilman qualified for U.S. Championships the past two seasons and competed at the 2024 U.S. Championships. Gilman is a member of the Muslim Student Association at his school, volunteers as a coach for Special Olympics and helps facilitate food drives for the homeless in Philadelphia.
Octavia Herai Garrison is a novice ice dancer from San Marcos, California, and represents the All Year FSC. She’s a student at Mount Everest Academy. A member of the 2023 U.S. Figure Skating National Development Team, Herai Garrison finished second at the 2023 U.S. Ice Dance Final with partner Michael Boustan. They were invited to a prestigious nine-day development camp in Oberstdorf, Germany. Herai Garrison has maintained a courseload that includes four AP courses. Herai Garrison serves as a teaching assistant, aiding students in grades five through eight. She discovered a passion for sewing during the pandemic, dedicating 30 hours to crafting fabric masks and engaging in a quilting sewing apprenticeship. She contributes to many community projects.
Amanda Lee is a member of Cutting Edge FSC in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin, and attends Glenbrook South High School in Illinois. Lee is a competitive member and co-captain of junior Team Elite synchronized skating team. Some of her skating highlights include competing internationally at the 2022 Hevelius Cup, the 2022 French Cup and the 2022 World Junior Synchronized Skating Championships, where Teams Elite placed third, first and third, respectively. Lee and her team also qualified for the 2023 and 2024 U.S. Synchronized Skating Championships. She is a member of the National Art Honors Society, an honor roll student and volunteer for the Glide to Growth nonprofit, where she is a skating instructor for children with disabilities who are learning how to skate.
Priyanka Lucey, a student-athlete at Vel Phillips Memorial High School in Madison, Wisconsin, is a member of the FSC of Madison. She is on the Wisconsin Inspire synchronized skating team, competing at the novice and junior levels. Lucey’s team secured first place at the 2022 Midwestern Synchronized Skating Sectional Championships, earning it a spot at the 2022 U.S. Synchronized Skating Championships. Lucey is also venturing into officiating, aspiring to become a synchronized skating technical controller. Outside the rink, she conducts groundbreaking research on developing novel antibiotics from soil bacteria at her school. Lucey presented her work at an undergraduate research symposium at UW Madison.
Caroline Mullen attends Bishop O’Connell High School in Arlington, Virginia, and is a member of Washington FSC. An ice dancer, Mullen competes at the junior level with her partner and brother, Brendan Mullen. Mullen qualified for the 2024 U.S. Championships and will compete in the junior dance event this week. The team represented Team USA at Junior Grand Prix Austria in 2023, where they placed seventh. Mullen has been named to the National Honor Society and has maintained more than a 4.0 GPA throughout her four years at Bishop O’Connell. Mullen is an avid swimmer and has competed in several local and state competitions.
Kiana Pan hails from Chicago and attends Northside College Prep School. She represents Northern ISC and is a junior women’s competitor and solo dance series athlete. Pan qualified for the 2023 Midwestern Sectional Singles Final, where she placed sixth. She also qualified to attend the National Solo Dance Final from 2021 to 2023. She placed in the top 10 each time in the senior solo combined event. Pan has a passion for art, including architecture and photography, and greatly admires the artwork around Chicago. She received the National American Visions Award in 2023, an honor that is given to one artist per state. Pan is a member of the policy debate team at her school, and has helped lead her team to qualify for several junior varsity and varsity debate championships.
Minseo Park is a Cupertino High School student and member of the Peninsula SC in California. Park has competed in novice, junior and senior women over the past two seasons. She competed at the 2023 Pacific Coast Sectional Singles Final at the junior level. Park moved up to the senior level this past season and finished third at the Sherwood Invitational. Park is the president of the Peninsula SC’s junior board and a member of their high school skating team. Park also has a vested interest in technology; she obtained an internship through the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she conducted research on a computational media research project. Park is an officer for the Hwarang Youth Foundation and volunteers at a clinic that provides care to those suffering from eating disorders.
Vivian Wang is a junior-level synchronized skater from The Skating Club of Boston and a student at Lexington High School. Wang has been a member of the Lexettes for two seasons. She represented Team USA on the Lexettes at the 2023 Mozart Cup and the 2023 ISU World Junior Synchronized Skating Championships, where they placed fourth and sixth, respectively. The team also qualified for U.S. Synchronized Skating Championships, where they placed fourth at the novice level in 2022 and third at the junior level in 2023. Wang is involved in journalism at her school, volunteers at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, and conducts interview-based research on the Asian American experience. Wang was also selected as a winner of the New York Times One-Pager contest, a worldwide opportunity that only 15 students received honors.
Vanessa Zhang is a West Windsor–Plainsboro High School South student and athlete from IceWorks SC. Zhang is a junior- and senior-level singles competitor who participates in both the National Qualifying Series and the Excel Series. Zhang has participated in several NQS competitions throughout the past two seasons, including the 2022 Challenge Cup, where she placed ninth overall, and the 2022 John Smith Memorial, where she placed seventh at the junior level. Zhang qualified for the 2023 Excel National Final & Festival, where she placed first in the senior women excel division. Over the last two summers, Zhang has worked on a research project in conjunction with Rutgers University. She conducted multidisciplinary research by utilizing computational science, chemistry and neuroscience. She also enjoys creating art and does so with recyclable materials.
Honorable Mention: The following skaters have received the distinction of Honorable Mention for the 2024 Scholastic Honors Team: Annie Bai, Evelyn Cheng, Clara Delcamino, Allan Fisher, Whitney Ford, Mandy Kao, Jack Liu, Natalie Yip.
