Tiana Woods, an eighth grader at Whitman Middle School, won the Leighton Hilbert Scholarship Award, and $1,000 college scholarship.

The scholarship was part of the Mayor's Scholars Awards, given this year to 19 students from Seattle schools. Mayor Greg Nickels presented the awards at a ceremony Thursday evening at City Hall.

Six other students who attend Ballard schools, or live in Ballard, received Mayor's Scholar Awards:

* Domonique Brown, a sixth grader at Meany Middle School;

* Arden Carmody, an eighth grader also at Whitman;

* CurDesia Hudson, an eighth grader at Hamilton International Middle School;

* Kassim Shaibi, a seventh grader also at Hamilton;

* Matthew Sukalac, an eighth grader at Eckstein Middle School; and

* Sarah Zink, a sixth grader at St. John School.

The Mayor's Scholar Award honors "unsung heroes." Students submitted essays last February, saying how they contribute to their communities, what obstacles they face, and how they would use their award money. The Leighton Hilbert Scholarship is given to a Native American student in a Seattle school.

All the students have good academic standing. Their applications included recommendations from teachers and other adults familiar with their service work.

"These students represent decency, honor, goodness, tenacity and grace," said Ken Alhadeff, a major donor for the nine years the awards have been given. "These awards are for those who can love the deepest, care the broadest, and sacrifice the most for their community."

"This award allows us to recognize Seattle's next generation of leaders," Nickels said. "Service to others is the foundation of a strong community."

Alhadeff and Nickels gave each student a certificate, an oversized letterman jacket ("To grow into," said Alhadeff) and $500 to use for their own education or to donate to charity.

Tiana Woods keeps her Native American culture alive through dance, which she says is not performance but more like prayer. For three years, she has helped her family put on a local Seattle powwow, and was Salmon Homecoming Powwow Princess in 2004-05. She will donate her Mayor's Scholar award to Huchoosedah Indian Education, a program that helps native students in Seattle Public Schools.

Domonique Brown teaches hip-hop dance for kids at a homeless shelter, and will save her award for tuition at Harvard Law School. She aspires to be a lawyer or the first African-American female President of the United States.

Arden Carmody started a vegetable garden at her school and recycling in her lunchroom. She will travel to Costa Rica this summer to protect endangered turtles from poachers while they lay their eggs. She dreams of becoming a surgeon who volunteers for Doctors Without Borders.

CurDesia Hudson volunteers at a daycare, helps with food drives, donates clothes to charity, participates in the YMCA Earth Service Club, and works as a teacher's assistant at the YMCA Community Learning Center.

Kassim Shaibi, who learned English four years ago, helps younger kids with their karate moves and with their homework at the Atlantic Street Center in New Holly. He participated in a read-a-thon, raising funds to buy cows for poor families in Malawi, Africa.

Matthew Sukalac volunteers at Children's Hospital's thrift store, takes care of preschoolers at his church on Sundays, and last summer he helped remove noxious weeds. He plans to attend Massachusetts Institute of Technology or California Institute of Technology to become a computer specialist, aspiring to build banks of computers for nonprofit organizations or relief efforts.

Sarah Zink raised money, through yard sales and lemonade stands, to buy canned food for the homeless. Saving half for college, she plans to donate the rest of her award to the American Lung Association to help find a cure for sarcoidosis, a disease which her father has that causes crystals to grow in the lungs.

All the Mayor's Scholar Awards are funded by private donations made to the Alliance for Education, a nonprofit organization, and given through the city's Office for Education.

Matthew G. Miller is a freelance writer. He may be contacted through bnteditor@robinsonnews.com.