Olympic College students make 2023 All-WA Academic Team

Two Olympic College students made this year’s All-Washington Academic team: Kiyrah Keith and Emma Johnson.

The All-Washington Academic Team program recognizes and honors the state’s finest higher education students. The students who make up the team reflect the diversity of the state, maintain high standards of excellence, and contribute positively to the community. Students who made the team will be honored at a ceremony at noon, April 27, at South Puget Sound Community College. The ceremony will be streamed on SPSCC’s YouTube channel.

Emma Johnson

Emma Johnson has a passion for teaching and plans to become a teacher.

“I’ve wanted to be a teacher for a long time,” she said.

Emma Johnson
Emma Johnson

Emma was inspired by her own teachers, who made learning fun and engaging.

“They always made everybody feel super welcome, so that was something that I looked up to, and I wanted to do the same for kids in the future after I figured out I really like working with them.”

She started working with younger kids while she was in middle school and became a program aid for the Girl Scouts, serving as counselor-in-training for younger girls during day camps and eventually overnight camps.

“I really enjoyed doing that type of thing,” she said. “It’s really fun to watch their joy and their curiosity and them learning new things.”

About a year and a half ago, she reached out to one of her old elementary school teachers and arranged to volunteer in her classroom every week.

Emma is also involved in extracurricular activities, having participated in the Distributive Education Clubs of America competition as a member of the OC Business Club, attending the organization’s fall conference this year, and competed at an area competition, and at the state level in marketing communications. She’s a member of the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society as well. Participating in these clubs has given Emma valuable leadership experience.

After Johnson graduates from OC, she plans to pursue a bachelor’s in education from Western Washington University, where she will also study sociology. OC has provided a foundation for her education studies; she’s taken such classes as Intro to Early Childhood Education, Art for Teachers, and, coming up, a sociology class called The Family, which is required by WWU.

Johnson said she’s excited about being selected for the All-WA Academic Team.

“I didn’t really know what it was until I started applying for it through Phi Theta Kappa,” she said. “I was very happy when I found out I’d been selected. It’s really exciting to be a part of this group of people who have done so much in their academic career and outside of it.”

Kiyrah Keith

Kiyrah Keith is pursuing a Computer Science degree at Olympic College, then plans to transfer to Central Washington University to pursue a bachelor’s in computer science. She enjoys teaching and aims to work as a professor teaching mathematics or computer programming.

Kiyrah Keith
Kiyrah Keith

As a tech intern at Star Tech Global Academy, a Seattle Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) education outreach program, Keith helped put on a series of workshops with Netflix in which guest speakers came to speak with students about careers in STEAM. Many of the speakers came from similar backgrounds as the students they were addressing, Keith said.

“They grew up in the same neighborhood in Seattle, went to the same high school, had the same low-income families, and then they were able to get scholarships and go to college and ended up at these fabulous careers in Netflix,” she said. “It was really cool to be able to facilitate that with the students and communicate that if you get your education, if you learn about technology, you could go from this neighborhood to being a graphic designer at Netflix and getting to design the awesome cover pages that you see.”

Keith herself is a first-generation college student. She’s always loved school and academics, and she taught herself computer programming at age 10 through online education resources like Khan Academy and MIT OpenCourseWare.

She started at Olympic College in 2021 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I started off just taking one class,” she said. “I was super nervous, because I wasn’t sure how much I could handle, or how to do this.”

She had a great experience and hasn’t looked back since.

Keith said she was excited to learn she had been chosen for the All-WA Academic Team.

“It was amazing,” she said. “It was a surprise and honor, especially once I found out it was just me and one other person from OC. I feel like I’ve been on a constant grind trying to keep my grades up, do good in classes, do good in work, so every once in a while, getting to look up and be recognized for all the hard work I put in was really an honor.”