Katherine Morawa, a senior at Etowah HS, has won a regional award in recognition of academic achievement and leadership. Katherine has won the Hispanic Heritage Foundation 2014 Regional Youth Gold Award in the Education category. The awards for the Atlanta region recently were presented during an awards ceremony held at Georgia Tech University.

The Youth Awards honor Latino high school seniors who excel in the classroom and community and for their achievement in various areas of study; the Education award is sponsored by Southwest Airlines. Three students are honored in each category one Gold, one Silver and one Bronze winner in each of the Foundation's 10 regions; of the 30 total honorees, one will be selected as the National Youth Award recipient of the category. Approximately 10,000 applications are submitted each year by high school juniors, who are honored as seniors in the fall. Students have an average GPA of 3.5 or higher, and winning students are role models who "inspire others and shatter negative stereotypes."

Katherine will be recognized by the Cherokee County Superintendent of Schools and School Board at the January 15 School Board meeting.