Spanish Fort High School's 2011 valedictorian has been named one of 25 students nationwide to receive Chick-Fil-A's prestigious S. Truett Cathy Scholarship.

Sara Beth Deas, a sophomore at Auburn University pursuing a degree in biomedical sciences, was honored with a ceremony at the Spanish Fort Chick-Fil-A March 15.

Mayor Mike McMillan read a declaration in Deas' honor, and her family and several former teachers from Spanish Fort High School attended the ceremony.

Deas had already received one $1,000 scholarship from Chick-Fil-A, along with 1,600 other team members from across the nation. From these 1,600 students, Truett Cathy, Chick-Fil-A's founder, scoured applications and found 25 students that stood out for excellence in academics, community service and leadership. Deas was one of them.

Deas, who began working at Chick-Fil-A in 2009, is the first Spanish Fort Chick-Fil-A team member to be chosen for the fast food chain's highest scholar recognition.

“It's a huge honor and an encouragement to keep doing well,” Deas said. “It's definitely a compliment, because for him (Truett Cathy) to recognize something like that just from a piece of paper is pretty cool.”

Johnathan Sadlock, operator of the Spanish Fort Chick-Fil-A location, said he has always been impressed with Deas' positive attitude and dedication to her studies and to her job.

“It was always a pleasure to work with her,” Sadlock said. “She had a positive attitude always, even when tests or finals and stuff came up.”

Deas said having a job in high school taught her a lot about time management.

“Throughout high school, I was taking AP classes as well, so those required a lot of outside work,” she said. “So with coming here four days a week, time management was a big deal, and that helped me prepare for college.”

In addition to maintaining a 3.76 GPA, Deas is an Auburn University Presidential Scholar and a member of the Honors College. She is a founding member of Auburn's non-Panhellenic Christian sorority, Sigma Phi Lambda, and she is currently the service chair. This summer, she will serve as a Camp War Eagle Parent Counselor, helping parents and students learn more about Auburn during summer orientation.

Deas dreams of becoming a doctor, but is still deciding in what field of medicine she want to specialize.

“I have shadowed a family practice doctor, and that's kind of cool just because of the relationships you build with your patients, and they trust you a lot,” Deas said. “But I also think surgery is attractive, and I think Alzheimer's is the most interesting subject in the world, and I would love to do something with that through research.”

Jimmy Deas, Sara Beth's father, said he couldn't be prouder of his daughter's success.

“She's always been very motivated and goal oriented,” he said. “She's always done her best, and that's all we've ever asked. And we're really proud of how she's doing at Auburn.”