Senior Jake Stebbins, 17, of Cranberry Township, recently received an award for student athletes who put in extra effort in their grades, sports and extracurricular activities. Jake's main extracurricular focus has been the missions trips he likes to take to Kenya.

CRANBERRY TWP — A football captain is often recognized for his achievements on the field, but it's less frequent one is celebrated for good grades and volunteer service at the same time.

Seneca Valley High School senior Jake Stebbins, 17, the son of Beth and Jeff Stebbins of Cranberry Township, was recognized at Monday night's board meeting for being among the top students participating in a varsity sport and making time to give back to the community.

“It was easy for me to put this nomination forth,” said Heather Lewis, Seneca Valley's athletic director, at the board meeting. Lewis said she's “proud to be his athletic director.”

The extracurricular activity that made Jake stand out among other students, aside from his performance on the football field and 4.9 weighted GPA, is his work on mission trips to Kenya, the first of which he took when he was 15 years old.

“At that time, my sister had already taken three trips, and my mom had taken two,” Jake said. “They talked about how great it was, and I wanted to check it out for myself.”

Jake said the trip and the time he spent at an orphanage there were very rewarding.

“The kids were so happy,” he said.

When addressing the school board, Jake mentioned one child in particular whom he met on both trips he made to Kenya.

On the first trip, he took a picture of the boy when he was playing with Jake's sunglasses, and on the second trip Jake ran into him and needed to ask if he was the same boy in the picture “because he had grown up.” At this question, the boy started to smile.

“On the fourth day we were there,” he said, “he came up to me and handed me a piece of paper. He'd written me a note.”

Jake said the note was a little difficult to understand as it was written in broken English because the more common language spoken in Kenya is Swahili.

The note, Jake said, repeatedly read “God bless you. I love you.”

Jake said he wrote a note back to him, and the boy almost started crying because he was so happy to have a response. Twenty minutes later, Jake said, the boy had written him a second note and drawn pictures with it this time.

“It was really cool for me to see how much it meant to him,” he said.

Jake said he “definitely want(s) to go back at some point.” He said he might make plans to go in the summer before he goes to college, if his schedule will allow it.

“I've really been busy most of my life,” he said, “but stuff that's important I should make time for.”

After graduation, Jake will attend Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., where he will play football and major in biometry and statistics.

“It's kind of crazy,” he said about his last year of high school. “I'm having fun with it right now, but it's kind of weird to think about the fact that it's going to be over.”

After college, Jake said he plans to enter the actuarial science field.