Auburn’s Tierney Kuhn and Katherine S. Tacke were among Highline Community College’s 14 Honors Scholars for the 2008-2009 academic year. The group received $624,000 in financial aid and scholarship offers to continue their education.

The Honors Scholar program’s 70 graduates have earned a combined $2.4 million in scholarships and other financial aid since the program began in 2003.

“The 2008-2009 academic year has been a banner year for the Honors Scholar program,” said Barbara Clinton, the program’s adviser. “The entire group of graduates earned about 25 percent more in financial aid and scholarships than last year’s students.”

The program is open to all students who have 12 credits of college-level work with a 3.5 GPA or higher. The program prepares students for upper division courses, typically offered at a four-year university or college.

It has shaped Gates Millennium Scholars, USA Today Academic All-American, Coca Cola Gold Scholar and Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Scholarship and QuestBridge College Match Scholarship winners.

The 2009 scholars will graduate on June 11.

Kuhn was selected as a Coca-Cola Gold Scholar, a national award that honors the top 50 U.S. scholars in the Coca-Cola All-State Community College Academic Team competition.

In addition, Kuhn was named Washington state’s New Century Scholar for having the state’s highest score in the Coca-Cola academic team competition.

Kuhn, a Running Start student, was accepted to Princeton University for the coming fall.

Kuhn plans on studying computer science at Princeton. Eventually, she would like to obtain her master’s degree and doctorate so she can become a full-time researcher in artificial intelligence.

This year’s 14 Honors Scholars, by city, are:

• Auburn: Tierney Kuhn, Katherine S. Tacke

• Burien: Jennifer Anne Kemp

• Des Moines: David Ganett, Nari Kim, Mang (Jerry) Li, Kuan-Hung (Eleven) Liu, Robert Martin, Tuyet Anh Nguyen, Jerry Zarski

• Federal Way: Lei Lam (Selina) Chan

• Renton: Ashley L. Matsumoto

• Milton: Rikki-Rachelle Hinz

• White Center: Boreth (Terry) Long

For more information about Highline’s Honors Scholar program and to read more success stories, visit http://flightline.highline.edu/honors/.