CHS graduate named U.S. Presidential Scholar

LEAVENWORTH – The U.S. Department of Education has selected Cascade High School graduate Caroline Menna as a 2025 U.S. Presidential Scholar, one of the highest honors in the nation for graduating high school seniors.

Menna is one of 161 students who have demonstrated outstanding academic achievement, artistic excellence, technical expertise, leadership, citizenship, service, and contribution to school and community.

The U.S. Presidential Scholars Program annually recognizes and honors the nation’s most distinguished graduating high school seniors. Students are nominated across the country based on academic achievement, artistic excellence, or accomplishments in career and technical education, with candidates identified through standardized test scores, nominations by state superintendents, or recognition programs.

The selection process began in December 2024, when more than 6,400 students – out of the 3.9 million graduating – were invited to apply. Menna and fellow CHS graduate Cruz Martinez were two out of 20 candidates nominated by Washington State. Of those thousands of candidates, only 650 students – including Menna and Martinez – were selected as semifinalists.

From the pool of semifinalists, only 161 U.S. Presidential Scholar award winners are selected. As directed by the Presidential Executive Order, the 2025 U.S. Presidential Scholars are one young man and one young woman from each state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and U.S. families living abroad, as well as 15 chosen at-large, 20 Scholars in the arts, and 20 Scholars in career and technical education. 

Honoring a U.S. Presidential Scholar tradition since 1983, Menna named her most influential teacher: Dayle Massey from CHS. Massey will be honored with a personal letter from the Secretary of Education.

In addition to earning the U.S. Presidential Scholar award, Menna has been a CHS valedictorian, a National Merit Scholar, and one of the top high school Nordic skiers in the nation. She was recruited to be a ski racer at Dartmouth College, which she is attending this fall. She has recently joined The Dartmouth, the oldest college newspaper in the country, as an opinion writer. Her sister, Isabel Menna, is a staff reporter for The Dartmouth.

Since 1964, the U.S. Presidential Scholars Program has honored approximately 8,600 of the nation’s top-performing students. The program was expanded in 1979 to recognize students who demonstrate exceptional talent in the visual, literary, and performing arts. In 2015, the program was again extended to recognize students who demonstrate ability and accomplishment in career and technical education fields.

Taylor Caldwell: 509-433-7276 or taylor@ward.media