ABOVE: Isaac Sheard and Abi Peyman, Fairmont High School’s Triple A winners.

FAIRMONT– Fairmont High School seniors Isaac Sheard and Abi Peyman have been selected as the district’s Triple A winners for the 2023-24 school year. Each year the award recognizes two students who excel in arts, athletics and academics.

Starting with arts, Sheard has been in all of the band ensembles the district offers including jazz band, pep band, marching band and orchestra and the pit orchestra. He plays alto saxophone, which he began playing as a 5th grade student. Two summers ago Sheard went on the school’s band trip to Washington, D.C., Boston and New York.

Peyman has played percussion in band since she was a 5th grade student. She’s taken part in pep band and marching band and also went on the school’s last band trip. She’s also in orchestra, where she plays the violin. Peyman has also been in choir.

“I’ve done the musical since 7th grade,” Peyman said.

As a 7th grade student, she played the lead role in the titular musical, “Annie,” and as a senior, this past fall she played Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz.” She’s also been in the spring play the past two years and plans to partake in this year’s, too.

Sheard has also been in math league and in knowledge bowl and robotics since 7th grade. For the latter he’s currently captain and programming lead.

In 2022, Sheard was a part of the robotics team’s first trip to the state tournament and in 2023, the team received 1st place at the state competition and went to the world competition in Houston, Texas for the first time. He anticipates that the team will once again have a successful season this year.

Peyman has done original oratory in speech since 7th grade and this season she’s planning on trying out great speeches, too. She has gone to the state competition for speech twice so far and in her sophomore year she nabbed 7th place in her category.

As for athletics, Sheard has dabbled in both basketball and football. He’s been in track and field since 7th grade and takes part in weight room with the olympic weightlifting club.

“Sometimes I run the school’s Fairmont Disc Golf Club,” Sheard said.

He explained that the school group branched out from the original Fairmont Disc Golf Club and that it gets together some Saturdays to play.

Peyman has been in basketball and tennis all throughout high school. This last year she was a captain of the tennis team. In 2021, she was a member of the tennis team that placed 4th at the state tournament.

When it comes to academics, Sheard and Peyman have taken an interest in different–though equally impressive– classes.

Sheard has taken 17 different classes that have earned him college credit and nine AP classes.

“One of my favorites was AP Java. It helped me to expand my knowledge on Java (computer science technology) so I could be helpful to the robotics team last year and this year. Before that I took AP computer science principles to get the groundwork,” Sheard said.

He also enjoys his AP calculus class, which he’s currently taking with Jerry Brooks.

Sheard is also in the National Honor Society (NHS) and has received the AP Scholar with Honor award.

Peyman has taken two AP classes, two PSEO classes and 12 College in the School (CIS) classes.

“I love cadet teaching. I want to be an elementary teacher,” Peyman said.

The class, taught by Wendi Tonder, allows high school students to go over to the elementary school and work with younger students there.

“I love getting to go over there,” said Peyman said.

In addition to cadet teaching, Peyman enjoys her composition classes with Sara Gudahl.

Peyman is also a member of NHS, student council president and the senior class president. She’s also one of two student representatives on the Fairmont School Board.

Last, but not least, Peyman is also involved with the district’s new Unified Cardinals Club and last year she played on the Unified Soccer Team.

“That was probably one of my favorite things I’ve done in high school. It was so fun to see everyone work together,” Peyman said.

Outside of school, Sheard and Peyman are involved in a variety of activities as well.

Sheard is an official judge for VEX robotics competitions in Fairmont.

“I really like being the person I never had when I was younger as far as robotics and STEM activities. I help with 3D printing classes. I run seminars for STEM clubs and things like that. It’s really cool to see that person in me when I was younger in these younger kids who are interested in STEM,” Sheard said.

This past summer, Sheard volunteered at the University of Minnesota for a NASA space grant consortium.

“I worked on weather ballooning payloads. My project was to send a payload into the stratosphere that would track the sun during an eclipse,” Sheard said.

He heard about the program while at a flight convention for pilots with Jerry Brooks.

“There happened to be one aerospace engineering group there among all the mechanics and pilots. I asked them about programs in the summer and it took off from there,” Sheard said.

Peyman helps coach both tennis and basketball camps for younger students in the summer.

“I always loved when the big kids came to help when I was little. It’s cool to do that,” Peyman said.

After they graduate high school, the students have an idea of what they’d like to do and it’s clear they’ve been preparing for their futures for awhile.

Sheard knows he wants to go into aerospace engineering and, depending on the program, will minor in robotics. He’s applied to many schools but is unsure where he will go just yet.

Peyman will attend Wartburg College, where she will play tennis and major in elementary education. She’s interested in minoring in coaching.

Mat Mahoney, the district’s athletics director, said that each year the Triple A winners are selected by a committee made up of teachers and coaches. This year the committee had to consider the 141 students in the senior class.

“To win this award, you really have to be well-rounded in multiple things. It’s a tough process to select the winners. Both of their GPAs were a 3.9 or higher. They’re both in the top 15 of their class. Abi was with the tennis team that had success and Isaac is one of the big reasons robotics has been successful. They both have their niches and what they’re good at,” Mahoney said.

Speaking on receiving the award, Sheard said it was a great honor though he didn’t expect to receive it. He felt like he lacked in some areas but noted that he’s at least tried a little bit of everything. Peyman said she was also surprised to hear she had been named, but grateful.

“We have a lot of talent and experienced people (in our grade). I’m grateful for all of the opportunities that I’ve had,” Peyman said.