Every year, two students are selected as Fairmont Area School’s Triple A recipients. One young man and young woman are given the award for excelling in the arts, academics and athletics.

This year’s recipients, Tyson Geerdes and Bergen Senf, shared how they felt when they learned of their selection.

“I was extremely humbled because I know there are a lot of members of the senior class this year that are really involved and truly upstanding members of our school community,” Geerdes said. “So it was really powerful to me because there are so many that are deserving of this.”

“I was truly excited,” Senf said. “The Triple A award is a great honor that our school has, and I just feel humbled to have been recognized. The award is an acknowledgement of all of the coaches, my teammates, my family and my parents, and I think it’s as much for them as it is for me.”

When asked about their busy slate of activities, both Geerdes and Senf said they have learned to embrace what they enjoy.

“Golf is my passion and it always has been,” Senf said. “It’s something I could do forever, but I think the thing that has surprised me the most is when we recently started our mock trial team. It has been so fun to undertake that new adventure as a school and build a program, and I never thought that I would have enjoyed it as much as I do.”

“I don’t do anything I don’t enjoy, because if you’re not having fun doing it, what are you doing?” Geerdes said. “I enjoy all my classes. We have a really positive atmosphere here at the high school, where we don’t have any negative connections with teachers and we have fun experiences in the classrooms.

“That’s not to say that we’re not getting worked on or learning things. We’re learning things and having fun while we’re doing it.”

Both young adults also have found jobs that work for their busy lives.

“I do some part-time, as-needed jobs,” Geerdes said. “In the summer I do all the baseball and softball fields for the baseball and softball associations in town, and then in the winter I help with Lawn Solutions.”

“In the summer, I work at Interlaken Golf Club, in the cart shed and the pro-shop,” Senf said.

As far as the future, Geerdes would like to keep his education plans private at this time. Meanwhile, Senf said she will attend St. Olaf College in Northfield, where she hopes to double major in political science and sociology and anthropology, and perhaps minor in American studies.

Both students noted they are grateful for the people who have helped them along the way.

“I think that I’ve had a lot of great influences, specifically older seniors when I was on teams,” Senf said. “I think that was why I had so much success on teams, and I owe a lot of acknowledgement to the people that led me as I grew up in golf and speech and other things.”

“Triple A is about the culmination of the activities that students are involved in, and it can’t just be the school that provides that,” Geerdes said. “It has to be a really well-connected community because not all the leaders can come from the school. We couldn’t have some of our more precise activities without mentors and leaders that come in from the community.”