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10-year Student Achiever eyes marriage, more college

Clair Donovan, 1998 Tucson Citizen Student Achievement Award winner

1998 award winner Clair Donovan takes a trip to Disneyland.

1998 award winner Clair Donovan takes a trip to Disneyland.

A wedding is in the near future for Clair Donovan, the Tucson Citizen’s Student Achievement Award winner 10 years ago.

And after that, she hopes, a few children.

But while she’ll want her children to always do their best, she isn’t going to push them to

• have perfect attendance in school

• never bring home anything less than an A on a report card, and

• be valedictorian of their high school class – just because she did all of those things.

“It would be nice if they had perfect attendance, but not if it comes at a stress cost. I’m not going to emphasize that it’s the most important thing,” said Donovan, general manager at a local Pizza Hut.

She started working there when she was 16 and a student at Catalina High Magnet School. It paid for her expenses through college. Then she stayed on in management.

The 28-year-old majored in English and double-minored in Spanish and psychology at the University of Arizona and said she eventually wants to go back to college to get some advanced degrees, and maybe go to law school.

She already has taken classes that prepare people for the LSATs.

She said community service is one of the reasons she stayed with Pizza Hut.

“It’s really involved with the community,” she said, adding she is United Way campaign manager there and has done volunteer activities through Pizza Hut with the March of Dimes, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Children’s Miracle Network and the “Save our Sabino” group.

Donovan said she still has the sense of responsibility that was so ingrained in her throughout her school years.

And there’s still that perfect attendance mentality.

“I’ve got to be dead to call in sick,” she said. “One of my key phrases at work is “Suck it up and get through it.”

Ten years from now, Donovan wants to be deep into motherhood and probably also have a master’s in English or a degree in law. Her advice to this year’s Student Achievement Award winner, who will be announced Friday:

“Get some sleep. (She often didn’t get much more than three hours a night those early years.) And remember your college years. Make time to have fun. Grades are important, but get out there and meet people. They will be your lifelong friends. These will be the things that will be most valuable to you when you get out of school.”

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PAST STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT WINNERS

1957: Emma Gee, Tucson High

1958: Robert Kirk Young, Catalina

1959: Russell Sidney Nielsen, Sunnyside

1960: Margaret Ann King, Salpointe Catholic

1961: John Moffatt, Catalina

1962: James R. Davis, Catalina

1963: Joel M. Vavich, Tucson High

1964: Jon A. Hoffman, Catalina

1965: Diana Lee Baum, Flowing Wells

1966: David R. Coatsworth, Pueblo

1967: Jennie Tom, Flowing Wells

1968: Douglas Barry Wilson, Rincon

1969: James Wood, Salpointe Catholic

1970: May Gin, Flowing Wells

1971: Carol Gilman, Catalina

1972: David Galligan, Catalina

1973: David W. Quinto, Canyon del Oro

1974: Douglas R. Linkhart, Palo Verde

1975: Sari Horwitz, Tucson High

1976: Mark Barker, Amphitheater

1977: Thomas R. Harrell, Tucson High

1978: Wayne E. Yehling, Tucson High

1979: Bari Weick, Tucson High

1980: Julia Elise Moore, Amphitheater

1981: Heidi Van Voris, Sabino

1982: Lynn Marcus, Catalina

1983: Daryl Clarke Johnson, Arizona Schools for the Deaf and the Blind

1984: Eric J. Moore, Amphitheater

1985: Fong Sau Tom, Palo Verde

1986: Tinamarie Federico, Pueblo

1987: Flint Callaway, Sahuarita

1988: Thuy Ngoc Duong, Santa Rita

1989: Brad Alan Chvatal, Sahuaro

1990: Thu Mai Duong, Santa Rita

1991: Ross Crowley, Flowing Wells

1992: Shannon Clark, Catalina

1993: Wendelyn Julien, Amphitheater

1994: Francisco Manuel Hernandez, Arizona Schools for the Deaf and the Blind

1995: Julie Martin, Desert View

1996: Hong Anh Thai, Catalina

1997: Jessica Miller, Flowing Wells

1998: Clair Donovan, Catalina

1999: Heather Ayn Davis, Immaculate Heart

2000: John Konarski, Desert View, and Alia Gecobe Peera, Santa Rita

2001: Jennifer Musty, Salpointe Catholic

2002: Marcella Marie Acosta, Santa Rita

2003: Christopher Courneen, Pueblo High Magnet School and Katherine “Kata” Pettit, Tucson High Magnet

2004: Mariana Gramajo-Sherman, Catalina High Magnet School

2005: Annalyn Rose Censky, Salpointe Catholic High School and Kevin Joseph Lopez, Ha:Sañ Preparatory and Leadership School.

2006: Carina Groves, Desert Christian High School

2007: Amber Rose Horvath, St. Gregory College Preparatory School

Citizen Online Archive, 2006-2009

This archive contains all the stories that appeared on the Tucson Citizen's website from mid-2006 to June 1, 2009.

In 2010, a power surge fried a server that contained all of videos linked to dozens of stories in this archive. Also, a server that contained all of the databases for dozens of stories was accidentally erased, so all of those links are broken as well. However, all of the text and photos that accompanied some stories have been preserved.

For all of the stories that were archived by the Tucson Citizen newspaper's library in a digital archive between 1993 and 2009, go to Morgue Part 2

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