Mercer Island High School students Ben Emanuels and Tara Nielson have been named as the Rotary Islanders of December.

Emanuels, voted the 2010 Most Inspirational Player, is a varsity captain of the MIHS basketball team with three varsity letters earned. A 2010 NFF Scholar Athlete, he was also a MIHS football team varsity captain with three varsity letters. He won a 2010 All-KingCo honorable mention for outfielder/center field on the MIHS baseball team with three varsity letters. He is a member of the 2010 KingCo Champs and 2009 Academic State Champs, a MIHS Bridges leader, and a member of the Senior Service Club, National Honor Society and National Society of High School Scholars. The son of Brian and Anne Emanuels, he has volunteered for the farmers market, Red Tent, Northwest Harvest and the Mercer Island fire station, and has coached youth at the Islander summer youth football camp, Mercer Island Little Dribblers and Mercer Island Little League Player Development. After graduating he intends to play football in college at a top academic institution.

Nielson, a captain of the 2010 MIHS girls soccer team, earned All-KingCo League honors in 2009 and 2010 while the team’s co-MVP. She is a member of the National Honor Society and National Art Honor Society, and is a blood drive liaison for the Senior Service Club. She has participated in the Relay for Life since 2007 and has played on the MIHS soccer team for four years. She also played JV tennis in 2009. The daughter of Allen and Molly Nielson, she is a Special Olympics liaison for the National Charity League Evergreen Chapter and a student leader with the Mercer Island Presbyterian Church who has served on a Tijuana, Mexico, mission trip and Peru immersion trip. She is also a member of Safe Rides and the Nordstrom Brass Plum Fashion Board. She works part-time at What to Wear clothing boutique and plans to study anthropology and minor in Spanish at a four-year university.