Every year Syracuse.com awards the Syracuse.com’s Best and Brightest Award to 25 seniors in the Central New York area. That means only students from certain schools like Liverpool High school, Fayetteville-Manlius High School, Chittenango High School, an so on are eligible to win this high honor. These awards are presented to students based on academic success, personality, community work, and more. On November 7, 2025 Jahanna Donegan-Wurtz was one of the 25 students who was chosen to receive this high honor.

Jahanna won this award due to her hard work and efforts over her years here at Chittenango. She has been involved in numerous groups like VEX Robotics, science olympiad, a NASA sees internship, etc., and even served as the vice-president of Wiregrass Women for STEM. After receiving the award Jahanna said it was “really exciting, it was amazing, it was a really big honor to have won it.”

During a quick interview Jahanna was asked, “what does winning the Syracuse.com’s Best and Brightest Award mean to you?” She responded to that by saying, “to me it really highlights how hard I worked and really showed to me how my efforts over the years have payed off”.

Winning this award is a big honor and another testament to Jahanna’s hard work. It shows that all her efforts and all her work has payed off. However, it is not just a symbol of her work specifically. Its a symbol to show that there are still motivated and hard working students. Some might believe that students today are lazy or less intelligent. However this award highlights the hard work, intelligence, and personality of our generation.