BUSHNELL, Fla.---

“Now for our first senior Volleyball player, Karsyn Hogan” the PA announcer says.  It’s senior night at South Sumter High School and Hogan is walking out to a round of applause with both of her parents by her side.  

“Volleyball definitely brought me out of my shell,” Hogan says.

 She’s a defensive specialist for South Sumter’s volleyball team, but she’s also so many other things.   

“Clubs? FFA, FBLA, NHS, drama club I joined that this year,” she rattles off humbly.  She’s also a Math Olympian with a 4.7 GPA.

“I have really bad time management I will admit that.”

She won’t brag so here’s someone that will.

“I think there’s nothing that speaks to good worth ethic more than being both a good student and an athlete,” South Sumter principal Christi McKinney says.  “I know Karsyn says she doesn’t have good time management, but she definitely does.”

Mckinney nominated Karsyn Hogan for the Spectrum News Scholar Athlete program.  Spectrum News selected Hogan as the winner for Sumter County.  

“This is the first official scholarship I’ve received,” Hogan says.  “And so to me it’s affirmation,  this is what you’ve earned for all your hard work.”

The scholarship will help her attend her dream school Brown or one of the five other schools that have already accepted her.  

“I’m just hoping that the college I end up choosing is the right fit for me,” she says.  “I think that’s what everyone worries about.”   

Wherever she goes, that South Sumter work ethic will follow 

“I just think everyone goes through hard times.  Everyone goes through those moments where you want to stop working and you have periods of time where it doesn’t feel like it’s worth it anymore.  But I think the reason I’m here and the reason I’m receiving this is because I knew in the end it was going to be worth it.  You just have to keep pushing yourself.”