Out of 600 seniors at Clarkston High School, her dedication, leadership and service to her community and country stood out, earning her the honor of “good citizen.”
Erin Browe recently received the Good Citizens Award, an honor from the Sashabaw Plains Chapter of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution (NSDAR).
Browe was a special guest at a luncheon and ceremony at Mesquite Creek, Feb. 12, where she received a certificate, pin and flower for her accomplishment.
“I feel really honored I got picked. I know there were a lot of others in the school who have done good things,” Browe said.
Recipients are chosen through their respective high schools by the counseling staff and are voted upon by their fellow classmates, Linda Miller said, secretary of the Sashabaw Plains NSDAR.
The 17-year-old Sashabaw Plains chapter awarded seven students from surrounding area schools the Good Citizens Award. Recipients must possess qualities of dependability, service, leadership and patriotism. They must also construct an essay on “Our American Heritage and Our Responsibility for Preserving It.” Essays are timed at a two-hour limit and writers are supervised by a school counselor. Written work from Browe and the other “good citizens” will go on to district competition with the potential to further to state and national awards.
Miller said she was very impressed with the student winners this year. “As a whole, they were a very enthusiastic group of students. They are very vocal and seem to have high reaching goals. They are certain and confident about their future, which really stood out to me compared to past years.”
President of the Clarkston High School Octagon Club, a community service program, and three-year member, Browe has given of her time to many charitable works. She has worked with underprivileged children at the Baldwin Center in Pontiac, adopted a family and sorted food through Clarkston Lighthouse, served at a soup kitchen in downtown Detroit, been part of the Adopt-a-Highway program, and been a two-year participant in Relay-for-Life, raising money for the American Cancer Society.
A member of the National Honor Society, Browe holds a 3.6 grade point average and already has eight college credits for her advance placement European history courses.
After graduation, Browe plans to attend Michigan State University and major in landscape architecture.
She said she has been interested in architecture for a long time, but geared her future plans to landscape architecture after attending a career day at Cranbrook Institute.
“I met with two landscape architects and talked with them for awhile. It was very interesting,” Browe, a Clarkston resident since 1996, said. “I’ve always been interested in art and design and this is a great way to incorporate that into a career.”
On top of academics, she has played flute in the marching band for four years, and received first division ratings for three years in the solo and ensemble state competition. Browe was also a member of the soccer team her freshmen year.
Browe’s mother, Kathy, said, “I’m very proud of her. She is a great daughter, a great student and a great young person.”
Founded in 1890, NSDAR is a women’s organization seeking to preserve American heritage through education as well as preserve the memory and tradition of Revolutionary ancestors in a permanent genealogical record for the sake of future generations. NSDAR is made up of 172,000 members in chapters located in each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Canada, Australia, England, France and Mexico.