Matthew King wins Distinguished Student Award

There are no Japanese classes at Sugar-Salem High School so United Dairymen of Idaho Distinguished Student Award recipient Matthew King learned it outside of school in his spare time. He has always been fascinated with Asia and that was enhanced when his family hosted a Japanese exchange student.

“He helped me learn Japanese and then I had the chance to go visit him recently in Japan for a few weeks. It was fun to go to his high school and meet his friends,” Matthew said.

Matthew also plays piano and cello and sings in choir. He was selected to go to all-state this year. Matthew has also been in several plays in high school.

“The people I do drama with become like family — I’ve had the opportunity to do a lot of shows here during my high school years,” Matthew said.

Matthew has excelled in academics in high school too. He has a 3.97 GPA and wants to go into international business. He hopes his study of Japanese will come in handy for that.