Dennis Rasmussen: Distinguished Student

I especially enjoyed getting to know this week’s United Dairymen of Idaho Distinguished Student Award winner. That’s because he’s also a journalist. In fact, Dennis Rasmussen of Century High School is a statewide award winning journalist.

Dennis is right at home at his computer in the journalism lab. He took a class in journalism as a sophomore and was hooked.

“News writing is what really struck to the core for me – I have the facts laid our for me and I can go out and get the opinions of people,” Dennis said.

Dennis admits his journalism skills were a bit rough at first, but he was passionate and got better and better until he recently won best of show for writing in a state wide high school newspaper contest. It’s still a thrill for Dennis to see his byline in print.

“When I see my name on the byline it feels like a challenge got completed, fulfilling my dream,” Dennis said.

Dennis has really come out his shell in high school mainly because he started making friends simply by joining clubs.

“I’d say the best way to do it is to join clubs,” Dennis said. “The first club I joined was the Star Wars Club when I came into high school and I made a couple of friends there. Then I joined BPA and met some people there and was able to learn about what they wanted.”

In fact, Dennis says the thing he’s enjoyed most about high school has been friends.

“Friends will make high school bearable, and they’ll help you with your homework, if you need it, they’ll help you with whatever you need and encourage you to be a better person,” Dennis said.