{"id":75252,"date":"2025-07-29T08:36:24","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T15:36:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/?p=75252"},"modified":"2025-07-29T14:05:57","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T21:05:57","slug":"flinn-scholars-class-2029","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/flinn-scholars-class-2029\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the Flinn Scholars joining NAU’s Class of 2029"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two of Arizona\u2019s best and brightest are headed to Flagstaff this fall to become Lumberjacks\u2014<\/span>Cianna Brooks<\/span><\/b> and <\/span>Grace Smithson<\/span><\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The two top achievers are part of the <\/span>20-person class of 2025 Flinn Scholars<\/span><\/a>, a coveted merit-based award that covers eight semesters of tuition, fees, housing and meals and even provides funds for study abroad and professional development. Brooks and Smithson beat out 1,100 other high school seniors to score the Flinn Foundation-supported scholarship, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Learn more about these two impressive incoming students as they prepare for freshman year.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cianna Brooks<\/span><\/b><\/h3>\n

Most kids complain about math class\u2014the convoluted word problems, the endless homework, the square roots. Not Cianna Brooks.\u202f<\/span><\/p>\n

The Sunrise Mountain High School grad from Phoenix knew from an early age that math would play a central role in whatever career she chose. She loved the subject in all its forms: algebra, geometry, even sports medicine. She has her eye on NAU\u2019s biomedical sciences major and hopes to minor in business\u2014that way, she\u2019ll gather all the knowledge she needs to someday open her own dental office.<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n\"Cianna<\/a>\u201cMy mom is my inspiration,\u201d Brooks said. \u201cShe\u2019s in school right now doing clinical rotations while also working two jobs and taking care of three kids by herself. She works very hard to support us.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

To match her mom\u2019s hustle, Brooks turned another of her passions, baking, into a side gig at age 11.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt all started when I needed to raise money for church camp, which was out of state,\u201d Brooks said. \u201cI wanted to make the money myself instead of asking my mom. I started baking cookies and selling them.\u201d\u202f<\/span><\/p>\n

Seven years later, Cici\u2019s Cookies has expanded into cupcakes, cake pops and cheesecakes\u2014and yes, she\u2019ll be taking orders from her dormmates in Flagstaff. But that\u2019s not all she\u2019ll be up to at NAU: An avid athlete, Brooks and her \u201cchaotic, hilarious\u201d friends plan to join the intramural rugby team.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Brooks still remembers the moment she found out she\u2019d become a Flinn Scholar: \u201cOne day, I was watching a film with my flag football team, and I got the phone call. I was overwhelmed with joy; my team and I were all celebrating together. Then I went home and told my mom, and she started crying.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Grace Smithson<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

Believe it or not, before Pinetop-Lakeside\u2019s Grace Smithson developed her love of learning, she thought school was boring.\u202f<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt like we were doing the same thing over and over,\u201d Smithson said. \u201cThere was so much memorization.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Then along came Adam Reeck, who teaches Advanced Placement Human Geography at Blue Ridge High School.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Grace<\/a>\u201cHe taught me how to take a different perspective on the world,\u201d Smithson said. \u201cIt\u2019s not about memorizing facts; it\u2019s about learning more about yourself and the world around you to help people out and make yourself a better person.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Learning from Reeck inspired the teen to consider a career that would make a positive impact on others\u2019 lives. After spending the last two years working at a kids\u2019 summer camp, she settled on a career in teaching. After all, it runs in the family.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy mom is an elementary school librarian, and my grandma was a teacher,\u201d she said. \u201cThey\u2019re great educators because they do their best to let every kid from every kind of background know they are valued and capable of doing awesome things. If you can change someone else\u2019s world as a teacher, that\u2019s a pretty amazing thing to do.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Smithson plans to balance her education studies at NAU with a healthy dose of creativity. A self-described \u201ctheater kid\u201d who was named one of the top 10 best actresses at the ASU Gammage High School Musical Theatre Awards this year, she hopes to explore the worlds of Lumberjack theater, choral music, dance and creative writing.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI like making my own worlds,\u201d Smithson said. \u201cI like to take audiences to a different place for a little bit and let them see something cool and crazy and fun.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Smithson said she chose to take her Flinn Foundation funds to NAU because the Flagstaff mountain campus isn\u2019t so different from her own pine-filled, four-season hometown, where she grew up with four younger brothers and a property filled with chickens and goats.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe feel of the town is similar to mine,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s a comforting, safe place.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Northern<\/span><\/p>\n


\nJill Kimball | NAU Communications
\n(928) 523-2282 | jill.kimball@nau.edu<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two of Arizona\u2019s best and brightest are headed to Flagstaff this fall to become Lumberjacks\u2014Cianna Brooks and Grace Smithson. The two top achievers are part of the 20-person class of 2025 Flinn Scholars, a coveted merit-based award that covers eight semesters of tuition, fees, housing and meals and even provides funds for study abroad and…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":75255,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-community"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}