Newport Beach’s Quenby Hersh, 17, was awarded...

Newport Beach’s Quenby Hersh, 17, was awarded the Youth America Grand

Prix award as the highest-scoring senior dancer in both contemporary

and classical dance at the competition’s semifinals. She will dance

in the finals April 14 to 18 in New York.

Hersh is a junior at Huntington Beach High School, where she

dances with the Academy of Performing Arts ballet ensemble. She is

the four-year recipient of the Elizabeth Amber Fontes dance

scholarship.

She also won the senior gold medal at the USA National Youth

Ballet Competition in 2004 and has trained in American Ballet

Theatre’s summer intensives the past three years.

In addition, Hersh will dance as a ballet finalist at the Orange

County Performing Arts Center on May 4. And she has qualified to

dance in the Helsinki International Ballet Competition at the Finnish

Opera House, representing the United States in Helsinki, Finland,

from May 23 to June 3.

Every year, the National Society of the Daughters of the American

Revolution Col. William Cabell Chapter presents one graduating senior

from each of the Newport-Mesa high schools with a Good Citizen Award

for outstanding leadership.

This year’s awards went to: Benjamin Applebee, Corona del Mar High

School; Jacqueline Havens, Costa Mesa High School; Garrett

Stephenson, Estancia High School; Bianka Fimbres, Middle College High

School; and Kristen Nelson, Newport Harbor High School.

* NEIGHBORS spotlights achievements in the community. Please

direct noteworthy information to Lindsay Sandham by fax at (714)

966-4679, or send e-mail to [email protected].