Tricia Seto
2023 Amazing Kids - Newberg
Age: 16
School: Newberg High School
Hometown: Newberg
WHY SHE IS AMAZING: Super involved in her school and through the local Rotary club
PROUDLY SPONSORED BY:
A compact dynamo in Newberg Oregon
Tricia Seto may be diminutive, but her accomplishments are significant and growing daily.
As such, the 16-year-old Newberg High School junior is the Newberg Graphic’s Amazing Kid for 2023.
Seto, a native of Southern California, came to Newberg about seven years ago after living in the Bay Area of San Francisco for five years. She lives in Newberg with parents Nancy Ho and Paul Seto, older sister Kimberly, and younger brother David. Mom is a processing engineering technician at Intel; Dad is retired.
Seto, a tasting room assistant at Winderlea Winery near Newberg, has accomplished much since moving to Newberg. She is involved in NHS’ legendary theater program, runs cross country, plays the cello in the school’s chamber orchestra and symphonic choir, belongs to Key Club and the Humanitarian Club, and is a member of the International Thespian Society.
But it’s her roles as president of the NHS Interact Club and other Rotary programs that prompted former Noon Rotary Club present Rod Federwisch to nominate Seto to be an Amazing Kid, even though she has only been involved with Rotary for less than a year.
“Tricia is an amazing student and human being. …,” Federwisch wrote, noting that Seto has amassed a 4.025 grade-point average in her time at NHS. “Tricia has made a huge impression on our Rotary Club of Newberg Early Birds. She has been attending our weekly meetings, helping with our service projects, and donating her monthly delivery of baked goods as an auction item for our annual fundraising auction (it sold for $450). … I am a retired elementary school principal, and I can tell you that they don’t make them any more amazing than Tricia!”
Seto said she became involved in Rotary after being accepted for its short-term exchange program last fall.
“They encourage all exchange students to attend at least a couple of meetings per month, and I really enjoy them,” she said in an email, adding that was how she got involved in the NHS Interact Club, eventually becoming president.
Four long-term and two short-term students will be sent abroad by the Newberg Early Birds Rotary Club this year.
“The short-term exchange is a program that allows me to match up with an exchange ‘sibling’ from a country of my choice and go there for half of my summer,” Seto said. “For the second half, my sibling will come back to Newberg with me and get to experience American culture.”
Seto will graduate in the class of 2024 with an eye on studying somewhere far from home.
“My big goal is to go to a good college somewhere out of state because I love to explore new places,” she said. “My top choices at the moment are Boston University and the University of British Columbia.”
Ultimately, Seto sees herself following that path due to a proclivity for science and math.
“I enjoy STEM (science, technology, engineering and math), so I intend to see myself in a STEM-related field and living somewhere beautiful surrounded by loving friends and family,” she said.
Her upward trajectory didn’t come without help and guidance from family and those at the high school.
“Some people that have truly impacted who I am today are my theater director (Michael McConaughey), my orchestra teacher (Joel Tanner), and my mom,” she concluded. “They have brought me out of my shell over the past few years and have allowed me to really just be myself.”