[dropcap]D[/dropcap]ripping Springs High senior Grace Baxter has been selected as the 2017 AXA Achievement Award winner for the state of Texas. In addition to $10,000 in scholarship money that Baxter will receive, Dripping Springs High School will receive a $1,000 grant to use toward staff professional development activities.
Criteria to win a state award, or be selected as an “AXA Achiever,” is to possess four key qualities. Those include ambition and drive, determination to set and reach goals, respect for self, family and community, and ability to succeed in college.
Baxter started “Center of the Plate,” a local non-profit with the mission of providing animal protein to families in need in the Dripping Springs community.
Center of the Plate works hand in hand with the FFA organization and local 4-H to facilitate the donation of market show animals, processing, storage, and delivery of beef and pork to families that have been identified. This year eight families will benefit, up from four families in the effort’s initial year.
Currently president of the Dripping Springs FFA Chapter, Baxter was also a finalist for the 2017 National 4-H Youth in Action Award and served as a State of Texas FFA Ambassador. Locally, she has received her FFA Lonestar Farmer, FFA Star Farmer and FFA Star Greenhand degrees at the Chapter and District levels.
Baxter plans to attend Blinn College this fall on a livestock judging scholarship. She will be dual majoring in Animal Science and Agricultural Business. She then plans to transfer to Texas Tech University.
