Celebrating eleven of Northern Colorado’s finest students.
Contents
2014 Leadership & Academic All-Stars:
3Hayley Berg 4Lindsey Deringer
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5Hez Fisher 6Gioia Fisk Lorena 7Martinez-
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8Madeline McGuffee
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The Leadership and Academic All-Stars were recognized for their outstanding academic accomplishments, leadership skills and commitment to community involvement on Thursday, April 25, 2013, during the 17th annual LAAS awards night at the Lincoln Center in Fort Collins. They are from left: Sam Baca, Emma Rae Reust, Amanda Kriss, Nicola van den Heever, Hannah West, Brielle Kelley, Alexis Swaim, Dana Nottingham, Jason Petty, Emily Yeh, Luke Fuerniss and Amanda Evans. Coloradoan library
What is Leadership & Academic All-Stars? The Coloradoan, in cooperation with Northern Colorado schools, created the Leadership and Academic All-Star Awards in 1996. The award honors outstanding students who have made significant contributions to their fellow students, schools and communities.
demonstrate leadership and dedicate themselves to community service. 2014 marks the 18th anniversary of the Leadership and Academic All-Star Awards. The award was originally created because our readers, through their letters and editorials, crystallized the need for the Coloradoan and our community to celebrate the achievements of our best and brightest youth. The Coloradoan, along with our sister newspaper the Windsor Beacon, recognize that today’s students are tomorrow’s leaders. We salute students from across Northern Colorado who have made a difference by giving back to their community.
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This is a unique award in that it acknowledges the accomplishments of students who excel in academics,
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We recognize that this night could not be possible without our sponsors. So we salute you and thank you for your support.
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Wade Provaznik
President/Publisher: Kathy Jack-Romero 970.224.7885 /kathyjackromero@coloradoan.com
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12Patrice Quadrel 13Meaghan Tufts
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Hayley Berg:
Positive attitude is Berg’s conscious decision By Kevin Duggan KevinDuggan@coloradoan.com
Hayley Berg brings high energy and enthusiasm to everything she does. Be it running for a state champion Thompson Valley High School cross-country or track team or digging into a calculus problem, she’s in for the long haul. And she’ll do it with a smile and an infectiously upbeat attitude. Berg said she has deliberately stayed away from the cynicism and world-weariness that some teens embrace. “I think a lot of things work out when you are positive and as kind as you can be with everyone you come in contact with,” she said. “There are a lot of silver linings out there.” During the course of her high school career, she has excelled in studies and athletics. But she also has put a lot of
time into volunteering, be it cannedfood drives for the Food Bank for Larimer County, flood-relief efforts or supporting Alternatives to Violence. Giving back to the community is an important part of her life, she said. Berg is “a leader in every sense of the word,” stated Thompson Valley counselor Karen Irvine in nominating her to be a Leadership and Academic All-Star. “Hayley’s personality is magnetic because adults and peers are both drawn to her integrity and positive attitude,” Irvine wrote. Berg credits her parents, Kurt and Cindy Berg, for giving her a positive outlook on life and supporting everything she has tried. She has twin 15-year-old brothers, Mike and Matt. Berg plans to attend Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, La., on a combi-
nation athletic and academic full-ride scholarship. She expects to study mechanical engineering with the goal of returning to Northern Colorado to work in the field of power generation. At first she was interested in the Louisiana school because of the quality of its engineering program. The opportunity to compete at the intercollegiate level on the school’s cross-country and track teams sealed the deal. Berg, who was born and raised in Loveland, said she is not intimidated by the thought of being so far from home. She’s also not bothered at the prospect of going into a traditionally male-dominated field such as engineering. “It’s kind of nice to surprise people,” she said. “A lot of the time that’s my goal, be it running or school.”
School: Thompson Valley High School Age: 18 GPA: 4.0 Hobbies/ activities: Sports, fishing, volunteering Favorite thing about LovelandFort Collins: Seeing the mountains every day
Thompson Valley’s Hayley Berg poses at Devil’s Backbone Open Space near Loveland on Wednesday, March 19. Berg, a member of the cross-country team, often has practice there in the summer. Erin Hull/ The Coloradoan
“There are a lot of silver linings out there.’
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Lindsey Deringer poses for a portrait as she sorts food at the Food Bank for Larimer County in Fort Collins on March 14. Erin Hooley/ The Coloradoan
Lindsey Deringer:
Finding joy an ongoing pursuit for Poudre senior Deringer
School: Poudre High School Age: 17 GPA: 4.11 Hobbies/ Activities: Music (plays the oboe), running and helping others. Favorite thing about Fort Collins: How supportive people are of each other. “Everyone is so kind,” she said.
By Sarah Jane Kyle SarahKyle@coloradoan.com
Poudre High School senior Lindsey Deringer has spent her entire life finding joy. “It’s a conscious decision,” she said. “I make the decision to be joyful every day.” It’s a lesson instilled in her by her parents, but also in her experiences in Colorado’s backcountry, where she said it can be easy to find frustration with the challenges the wilderness brings. “Joy is priceless,” Deringer, 17, said. “Backpacking has really taught me to choose joy and to choose to be happy. Regardless of where or not it’s raining, I should be happy because I get to be outside and doing what I love.” Two years ago, Deringer found joy in helping others by starting the Hunger Pains 5K, a personal project
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to fulfill her requirements for the Poudre High School IB program. The race drew on Deringer’s love for running as a PHS track and cross-country athlete, and on her desire to help the hungry. All proceeds benefitted the Food Bank for Larimer County, and food donations were collected also. In the two years she led the race, Deringer helped raise more than $14,000 and 600 pounds of food for Larimer County’s hungry. Though she’s not involved in the
people won’t fall in your lap. You have to look for ways to help and seek to become aware of the problems we face.” Helping people doesn’t always have to mean throwing a race or curing cancer, she said. Sometimes it’s simpler than that. “The power of empathy and putting yourself in other people’s shoes is hugely motivational,” Deringer said. “It can be by giving your time, or even just smiling at someone and holding the door open.”
“It’s a conscious decision. I make the decision to be joyful every day.” race this year, she said the past two years leading the race were “life changing” and gave greater depth to her philosophy of joy. “I think having an experience like that just showed me what can happen when people have the audacity to care about other people,” Deringer said. “Sometimes problems and opportunities to help
She’s not quite sure where her future will take her next, but she plans to take her joy with her as she pursues a degree – the subject of which is still being chosen. “Even if I’m stressed with the homework that college comes with, I get to be learning,” she said. “I get to be investigating what I’m interested in. That’s a treat in itself.”
Hez Fisher:
For Mountain View senior, hard work leads to happiness By Josie Sexton JSexton@Coloradoan.com
At 17, Hezekiah Fisher knows what’s important to him. During his senior year at Mountain View High School, he was defensive MVP and captain of the football team, he took part in student government and he was promoted to overseer of teaching aides at Congregation Har Shalom, where he also teaches Hebrew School with his father. In himself and others Fisher values loyalty, a strong work ethic and, above all, happiness. “There is so much to the world,” he said, using words like “hopefully” and “fingers crossed” when talking about traveling to see the rest of it. Fisher has a plan, tentatively. This fall he will attend University of Colorado Boulder or Brandeis or Brown universities (he is leaning toward Boulder to be closer to his family). He wants to study business, which he describes as “an important part of society,” or medicine, because, “I’ve seen a lot of people go through really heartbreaking injuries that they just can’t recover from.”
The way he sees it, he needs to make enough money to support himself, to travel, to go back to school for higher degrees and to always “keep growing my knowledge.” Fisher’s biggest fans are his four brothers and sisters, his mom and his dad. He says the bond between all of them is “kind of crazy.”
“There is so much to the world.” He laughs easily as he describes each of his sibling’s strengths, or how his parents met as teenagers, which was “almost a stalker story.” When Fisher talks about his family, he speaks as a unit. “We decided that we wanted to be Jewish, we wanted to be good people, we just, we wanted to support our community. And that was kind of the biggest thing for us.”
Hezekiah Fisher, 17, a senior at Mountain View High School, works out at CrossFit Evolve in Fort Collins on March 1. V. Richard Haro/ The Coloradoan
And when he talks about his father, which he does often, he is serious. “Even though he’s gone through hard times, he doesn’t let it wreck him. He uses it as more of a motivation to get back on his feet. And when he gets back on his feet, he makes himself stronger. And he has a good support system behind him, for sure.” Fisher says he is hardest on himself. In middle school, he struggled with math, and in his freshman year it was the only “B” he received. He told himself, “You need to stop this.” “And as soon as I decided I wasn’t going to let math hold me back, I really started working hard at it, and that’s one of the biggest places where I’ve excelled now.” This year Fisher is taking AP Calculus. In his free time, Fisher works out at CrossFit, competing only against himself in a strict training regimen, while trainers and fellow athletes push and support him, “like a team.” He says it really kicks his butt, and when he leaves the gym he’s thinking, “Let’s see how much better I can do tomorrow.”
School: Mountain View Age: 17 GPA: 3.97 Hobbies: CrossFit, baking, being outside in nature Favorite thing about Fort Collins: Old Town; “I love the feeling of it, especially throughout Christmas, when all of the lights are up.”
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Gioia Fisk
Fisk’s success comes in hybrid environment By Pat Ferrier PatFerrier@coloradoan.com
Midway through her high school career, Gioia Fisk decided traditional high school wasn’t working. She packed up and transferred from Fossil Ridge to Poudre School District’s Global Academy, a kindergarten through high school hybrid school that offers traditional and online classes. “I was swarmed with homework and didn’t have time to do things that I really enjoyed,” like taking on the role of a lost boy in the Fort Collins Children’s Theater production of “Peter Pan,” she said. “PGA gave me the opportunity to step out of the box.” Step out she did, serving as president of Student Council last year and National Honor Society this year, and serving on the Student Leadership Committee at the principal’s request. “Gioia knew she was not maximizing her potential and took it upon herself to find a better fit,” PSD Global Academy counselor
Chris Hagge wrote in her nomination to be a Leadership and Academic All-Star. “Due to her self-discipline and determination, Gioia has absolutely thrived here. Succeeding in a hybrid school requires more self-direction and motivation than most high school students possess. Gioia, however, has flourished. Her positive attitude is contagious ... other students seem to gravitate toward her and learn from her example.” Gioia (pronounced Joya) works about 25 hours a week at Charming Charlie’s, an accessories store at Front Range Village, works with disabled children as a volunteer at Respite Care and sings in her church choir. Like switching schools midstream, volunteering at Respite Care was one more way to challenge herself. “I hadn’t had any experience with developmentally disabled kiddos,” she said. “Respite was a perfect place to push myself into being a better version of myself. I love it. It is so rewarding.”
Singing at St. Joseph Catholic Church is one more way to express herself. “I love music and singing and praising God in that way,” she said. “It brings out amazing joy.” Born and raised in San Francisco, Gioia and her parent moved to Fort Collins when she was in seventh grade.
“(Gioia’s) positive attitude is contagious ... other students seem to gravitate toward her and learn from her example.” She plans to stick around and attend Colorado State University in the fall, majoring in fashion design and merchandising. Ultimately, she hopes to create clothing and merchandise and “incorporate my love of service” by working with Ten Thousand Villages, a nonprofit that helps artisans in developing countries sell their creations around the world for fair profit.
School: PSD Global Academy Age: 18 GPA: 3.7 Hobbies/ activities: Volunteer for Respite Care; works at Charming Charlie’s, spending time with friends watching movies Favorite thing about Fort Collins: The people and weather
Gioia Fisk, a senio at PSD Global Academy poses with some of her drawings. V. Richard Haro/ The Coloradoan
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Lorena Martinez-Infante
Lorena MartinezInfante, 18, a senior at Fossil Ridge High School, is a Daniels Fund Scholarship winner, which is a full-ride scholarship to any school she wants to attend. V. Richard Haro/ The Coloradoan
School: Fossil Ridge High School Age: 18 GPA: 3.3 Hobbies/ activities: Hiking and anything outdoors Favorite thing about Fort Collins: The energy and excitement that comes from the city’s mix of new and longtime residents
Long, short journeys helped define Fossil Ridge senior By Trevor Hughes TrevorHughes@coloradoan.com
Crosstown bus rides and 27-hour plane trips have helped define Fossil Ridge’s Lorena Martinez-Infante. The plane trips returned her to her family’s homeland in Paraguay. The bus rides helped her get across Fort Collins to the high school her mom thought she should attend to have her best chance of success. Sometimes she arrived late for her classes thanks to that bus from Taft Hill and Prospect, but teachers who knew the length of the ride she was taking were forgiving. “My mom wanted us to have a good education,” Martinez-Infante said. “Those bus rides -- it was certainly worth it.” Now, the high school senior is preparing to study pre-med, with an eye toward improving health care in developing nations, like Paraguay. She hasn’t yet selected a university, but hopes to travel the world as both a doctor and a missionary. “She ... strives for excellence as a way of honoring the sacrifices her mother has made for their family,” said nominator Jennifer Smela, a school counselor. “Lorena has had tremendous pressure, but
“Lorena has had tremendous pressure, but has handled it in stride and with dignity. She is fearless.” has handled it in stride and with dignity. She is fearless.” Martinez-Infante is her senior class president, runs cross-country, and serves on Fossil’s Interclub Council. She’s also a volunteer with the Fort Collins Rescue Mission and has held multiple jobs at restaurants around the city to help support her family. Her first language was Spanish, which helped her become a member of the National Spanish Honor Society while succeeding in AP Spanish, AP Language and Composition, and AP Literature and Composition. “She has managed to take the most rigorous of course along with working more than 30 hours per week and having a leadership position in our Student Coun-
cil,” Smela said. “To balance all of these responsibilities and maintain the level of learning she has achieved is truly remarkable. I believe in her completely.” Martinez-Infante said her work at the rescue mission in Old Town has helped remind her that no matter how hard things have been for her, things are harder for others. “I wanted to give back to this community that’s given so much to me and to my family,” she said. And trips to Paraguay, she said, have shown her the value of family -- and what makes Fort Collins special. “I’m really proud of my family and where we came from,” she said. “I just want to show people you can succeed, no matter where you came from.” Leadership and Academic All-Stars 2014 « 7
Madeline McGuffee:
McGuffee seeks to understand forces behind happiness School: Loveland High School Age: 18 Hobbies/ activities: Reading, talking with friends and family, yoga Favorite thing about Fort Collins: The view, Old Town shopping and restaurants and the “hustle and bustle.”
Madeline McGuffee, 18, a senior at Loveland High School, reads to a third-grade class at Cottonwood Plains Elementary School on March 17. She attended the school and goes back for visits and to read to students. V. Richard Haro/ The Coloradoan
By Nick Coltrain NickColtrain@Coloradoan.com
About a year and half ago, a documentary helped Madeline McGuffee set a course for her life — and it’s one that could bring a smile to your face. McGuffee, 18, wants to study happiness. Not the smile from a good joke or a sunset over the Rockies, necessarily, but the burgeoning field of positive psychology – surprising not many of her friends. “They’re like, ‘oh, you’re always smiling, of course you want to study happiness,” McGuffee said. McGuffee is bound for Regis University in Denver after she graduates from Loveland High School. Her GPA sits at 3.9, with other honors that run from captain of her school volleyball team to making the state qualifying rounds for DECA, the high school business club. She calls herself blessed for having parents who supported her through her endeavors. McGuffee spends much of her time working and volunteering with them, including regular work with her father’s social enterprise, Unite for Literacy. She reads to children and helps promote the 100-books-per-home initiative, a baseline they believe helps children establish a lifetime love of reading and makes a difference in their lives.
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“She’s always been on this kind of mission to make the world a better place,” her father, Mike McGuffee said. Madeline McGuffee works with her mother also in the National Charity League, a mother-daughter program that helps them bond through volunteering. Her mother also led Madeline to the serendipitous discovery of positive psychology by inviting her to watch a documentary called “Happy” one night. “I watched it like three more times and was taking notes,” Madeline McGuffee said. TED Talks followed, as did other studies into the field. She jokes that as soon as she thought she answered all the questions she could have, a dozen more cropped up. Even when relaxing with friends, she’ll ask, “What do you think the difference is between happiness and being happy?” Mike McGuffee said it fits his daughter’s personality through and through: The relative newness of the field gives opportunity for her to lead and further her mission of helping kids grow up happy. “Madeline has a real incredible sense of who she is and her place in the world and where she wants to go,” he said. It’s applicable to her lifetime goals as well: Madeline McGuffee plans to fuel her passion for philanthropy with eventual nonprofit work abroad and youth mentoring.
“They’re like, ‘oh, you’re always smiling, of course you want to study happiness.”
Senior Josephine Natrasevschi poses for a portrait at Fort Collins High School on March 1. Natrasevschi is a discus and shotput thrower for the track team. Erin Hooley/ The Coloradoan
Josie Natrasevschi
Natrasevschi nears realization of lifelong college dream By Tyler Silvy TylerSilvy@coloradoan.com
Fort Collins High School senior Josephine Natrasevschi is a matter-offact type of person. When asked how long she has thought about college, she doesn’t look dreamy-eyed. She doesn’t reminisce. She just responds. “My entire life,” Natrasevschi said. “Always.” When she was in third grade, Natrasevschi told her mom she would go to an Ivy League school. As a matter of fact, Natrasevschi is headed to Brown University in the fall. She took two classes there last summer. Those facts yield another: Natrasevschi is a Leadership and Academic All-Star. Grades alone don’t garner the award, nor do they secure a spot at a prestigious university such as Brown, where Natrasevschi plans to study medicine. Natrasevschi knows that, and offers her extra-curricular work as a matter of
fact. She has worked with the National Honor Society and the Math Honor Society. She is on the Teen Advisory Council for Rise Above Colorado, an organization that seeks to prevent drug abuse among teens. But her service work isn’t some plot to get into Brown. When Natrasevschi talks about Girls Scouts, that becomes clear. She won a Girl Scout Gold Award
took physiology and cultural anthropology there. She continues to challenge herself in Fort Collins, taking Advanced Placement literature, AP composition, AP Spanish, precalculus and physics. She’s also taking intro to medical explorations at Front Range Community College to become a certified nursing assistant.
“I love a challenge. I thrive off of high-pressure situations.” for her project, “Protect Yourself.” She researched, trained, blogged, developed and taught a class to aid in sexual assault and rape prevention. Natrasevschi could have graduated from Fort Collins last year. Instead of taking this year as an opportunity for more physical education classes, Natrasevschi picked up where she left off at Brown last summer. She
The challenging schedule provides no time for days off, and there is not time for a break. “I don’t do anything for a break anymore because I don’t have breaks anymore,” Natrasevschi said. Challenges may be Natrasevschi’s idea of fun, anyway. “I love a challenge,” Natrasevschi said. “I thrive off of high-pressure situations.”
School: Fort Collins High School Age: 17 GPA: 3.998 Hobbies/ activities: fishing, backpacking, archery, kayaking, horseback, snowboarding, pottery, anime and cooking Japanese cuisine. Favorite thing about Fort Collins: Endless sunny days, clean, crisp air and the view of the foothills.
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Remington PoncePore, 17, a senior at Ridgeview Classical Schools, runs cross country for Fort Collins High School. V. Richard Haro/ The Coloradoan
Remy Ponce-Pore
Focus on service began early for Ponce-Pore School: Ridgeview Classical Schools Age: 17 GPA: 4.18 Hobbies/ activities: Running, cycling, building small stuff in the garage (ex. play structure for his cat) Favorite thing about Fort Collins: “It’s a beautiful place to be outside.” Favorite spots include all up along Pine Ridge Natural Area throughout the trail system, the Poudre River and anywhere in the mountains.
By Madeline Novey MadelineNovey@coloradoan.com
Remington Ponce-Pore was 5 when terrorists flew planes into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. At the time, a newspaper with a photo of the Two Towers burning blew into
said. It was then he knew he wanted to serve his country. After graduation from Ridgeview Classical Schools, the 17-year-old high school senior will attend West Point, a U.S. military academy in New York. He follows in the footsteps o
“In a lot of ways, he’s still goofy teenager who tickles his little sister” the backyard where Ponce-Pore was playing. He remembers taking it to his mother, Geniphyr, and asking what happened. She said she’d tell him when he was older. He found it again when he was 8. This time, his mother painted a picture of tragic events that forever shaped America. Years later, PoncePore visited the 9/11 memorial in New York where he saw a fireman’s jacket and knew that man “died for us.” “That was pretty life-changing,” he
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his grandfather, a 1957 academy graduate and Army ranger in the Vietnam War. What happens next is fluid and that’s OK. “I guess I’ll see what the nation and the Army needs, and I’ll go and do that,” said the cross-county runner and history buff who seems older than his years. He’s a fan of nonfiction books about America’s past. “Here Comes the Sun” by The Beatles is his favorite song
and, if like Ellen DeGeneres he took an Oscar selfie, he’d want legendary actors Humphrey Bogart and Gene Kelly by his side. His father, Stephen Ponce-Pore, thinks of his son as good-natured, driven to achieve and duty-bound. And he was proud, thinking back to a Boy Scouts camping trip when his son immediately stepped in to help freezing scouts get packed up and out of the fast-descending snow. Looking forward, Stephen said his son could do anything – study natural sciences or law, go to graduate school or join the Special Forces. “The truth is, he’s kind of a Swiss Army-knife kind of kid,” he said. But set aside his quiet and thoughtful nature, what his father called natural leadership and modesty showed by not mentioning during an interview he received a full-ride scholarship to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology – and one just might find the funny and down-to-Earth kid within. “In a lot of ways, he’s still a goofy teenager who tickles his little sister” his father said.
Wade Provaznik
Resume building led Liberty Common senior toward passions By Kevin Lytle KevinLytle@coloradoan.com
Daniel Wade Provaznik II has been part of just about everything possible in his four years at Liberty Common High School. Student government, coordinating dances, honors society, athletics, robotics. Provaznik was everywhere. “In the beginning it was what looks good on a resume, I’ll be honest,” said Provaznik, an 18-year-old senior. “As high school progressed I learned to really love what I was doing.” He may have overbooked himself with his extracurricular activities, but it paid off. He fell in love with soccer after trying out as a freshman. He played all four years at Liberty Common and was a captain in his final season. He also picked back up an old love. In elementary school he joined a Lego robotics club that twice went to the World Championships. He came back to robotics as a senior when he joined the Highlanders Robotics team.
That hobby is steering his college decision. “I didn’t even realize it, I was just having fun at the time,” Provaznik said. “It was a way of thinking where you had a problem and found a solution. If it didn’t work you tried again. That’s just kind of how I worked.” Wherever he ends up going to college, he wants to pursue engineering. He’s been
“Only having one graduating class before me, we didn’t have much of a precedent to follow,” Provaznik said. “I didn’t realize it as a freshman, but I’ve learned that I can be a leader where I may not have been able to somewhere else.” He beams with pride when the stands are filled for a basketball game and he hopes
“I really try to challenge my friends and classmates to do things for your own reasons.” accepted to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. With a 4.01 weighted gradepoint average, he’s waiting to hear from Duke, Yale, Princeton and Harvard before choosing a college. While he’s proud of his academic accomplishment, it’s his work in other areas at Liberty Common that makes him smile. He is the student body president and has made it a goal to build a sense of pride at the school.
it will continue after he’s graduated. More than that, he hopes he can be an example for others to learn from. “I really try to challenge my friends and classmates to do things for your own reasons,” Provaznik said. “Not do it because it will look good on your resume, not to get into college. It will have that affect if you do it well, but that shouldn’t be the sole purpose of anything.”
School: Liberty Common Age: 18 GPA: 4.01 Hobbies/ activities: Highlanders Robotics team Favorite thing about Fort Collins: “Definitely the feel. It’s not a big city but it has every benefit of a big city.”
Dainiel ‘Wade’ Provaznik, 18, a senior at Liberty Common High School, has been accepted into West Point and is looking to get into engineering as a career. V. Richard Haro/ The Coloradoan
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Patrice Quadrel, 18, a senior at Rocky Mountain High School, plays soccer and runs track. V. Richard Haro/ The Coloradoan
Patrice Quadrel
Rocky soccer standout driven to succeed School: Rocky Mountain High School Age: 18 GPA: 4.161/4.0 Hobbies/ activities: Soccer, track, interior design, baking, boating, hiking Favorite thing about Fort Collins: Old Town and Horsetooth Reservoir
By Erin Udell ErinUdell@coloradoan.com
Patrice Quadrel has always been driven. When she was just starting out as a freshman at Rocky Mountain High School, school counselor Chrystal Kelly said Quadrel would often seek her out to talk about coursework and extracurricular activities. She’d tell Kelly about her dreams of playing soccer in college and going to dental school one day. She’d talk about how she wanted to get involved at Rocky, joining as many clubs as she could. Almost four years later, Quadrel is still as determined as ever and well on her way to reaching her goals. She plays center midfield on the girls soccer team – “the one who does all the running,” she said – and has received two offers to play Division 1 soccer in college. She’s waiting on word from all of the
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colleges she applied to before making the decision of where she wants to go, but once she does, she knows she’ll study something like biology or physiology – good majors for dental school applicants. As for those clubs, she became part of a handful, including Future Business Leaders of America, the Los Lobos Multicultural Club, the school’s peer mentoring program and Future Christian Athletes. Throughout it all, she’s also maintained several afterschool jobs. She works about 15 hours a week at Boardwalk Dental in Fort Collins, where she does office work. “Ever since I was little, I always loved going to the dentist and going to the orthodontist to get my braces checked,” she said. “All the other kids were like, ‘that’s so weird, why do you like doing that?’”
“I don’t know, I’ve just always really loved it,” she said, adding that working in a dental office has helped her understand what she hopes will someday be her future. Quadrel wants to eventually open a dental practice and be able to travel to third-world countries to provide dental services to children who many not have access to any. It’s something she first became interested in when talking to a classmate whose aunt helped people with cleft palates in Guatemala. But before she does that, Quadrel has plans for a summer filled with friends, concerts at Red Rocks, country music and days on Horsetooth Reservoir. Before she heads down the path she paved for herself, before she becomes a dentist, a collegiate soccer player or a college student, Quadrel will be something else this summer – a teenager.
Meaghan Tufts
Windsor senior will bring love of animals to vet school School: Windsor High School Age: 17 GPA: 4.08 Hobbies/ activities: She’s a runner and does cross-country and track. Favorite thing about Fort Collins: Old Town, and all the shops.
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Meaghan Tufts, 18, a senior track runner at Windsor High School, plans to attend CSU in the fall. V. Richard Haro/ The Coloradoan
By Ryan Maye Handy RyanHandy@coloradoan.com
Listen to 17-year-old Meaghan Tufts talk about her accomplishments or setbacks and you’ll be hard pressed to find a more level-headed high school senior. When the Windsor High School student and study body co-president won Leadership and Academic All-Star award she was a bit shocked, she said. And when Tufts got turned down for a few scholarships in March she was disappointed, but forged ahead. “It’s just kind of like a lot of people that have been successful in life have failed at first,” she told herself. “I just try not to think about the money part. It’s just going to bring me down.”
For a teenager on the brink of adulthood, Tufts already juggles a few more-mature responsibilities. Before heading to school, she usually gets up early to feed her horse, a Tennessee walker named Coco; at school, as co-president, she isn’t intimidated by talking to school administrators. She works at Nana Bee’s in Windsor, and knows that her skills with serving ice cream and making coffee could likely get a job that could see her through Colorado State University, where she’ll be headed come August. But, beneath the practical and accomplished Tufts is a daydreamer. In elementary school she fell in love with Edward Cullen—the sullen vampire in the wildly popular “Twilight” books — and
she finds reading love stories “freeing,” she said. She also has come up with a few fanciful story stories herself, one in particular about a woman whose husband rescues her from beneath a slab of Alaskan ice. While she might not meet the vampire of dreams, there is one dream of Tufts’ that has come true — going to Colorado State University. Ever since she was a kid making mudand-cat-food pies in her parents’ barn in Holyoke. Tufts has dreamed of being a veterinarian and going to CSU, she said. “Ever since I was little, I wanted to go to CSU and be a vet, and now it’s just four months away,” she said. Tufts almost didn’t apply, she said. With her family in Severance, where they moved a few years ago, she wasn’t sure that she wanted to be that close to home. But she applied just before the early admission deadline, and few months later came home to find an acceptance letter waiting on her bed. She paid the admission deposit the next day. “I was just like, ‘Mom, it’s happening’, she said. She’s even begun to develop a romantic fantasy about vet school. “I’m going to go to vet school and then marry this really awesome vet,” she joked. “He will probably be a small animal vet, and I’ll be the big animal vet.”
“Ever since I was little, I wanted to go to CSU and be a vet, and now it’s just four months away.”
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14 » Leadership and Academic All-Stars 2014
Thank you to our selection commitee
Thank you to our participating high schools
Jeanette Meyer
Jeanette Meyer is a graduate of Washington University, St. Louis, and holds an MBA from the University of Colorado. Meyer has owned and operated Meyer Property, Inc, residential real estate since 2001. She is licensed with RE/MAX Alliance. She is the mother of high school freshman Colin Kiser. She serves on the Board of Fort Collins Habitat for Humanity, and is a member of Junior League of Fort Collins.
Mike Demma
Mike Demma is the Development Director for Team Fort Collins. Demma has been a volunteer in Poudre School District for the past 36 years, and has served as a board director for 16 not-for-profit organizations in Northern Colorado.
Rocky Scott
Rocky Scott is the director of corporate affairs for Woodward. Scott received his Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Colorado State University, and did his graduate studies in business administration at Loyola College in Baltimore, Md., and the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.
Windsor High School
Katy Schneider
Katy Schneider is the director of marketing for Visit Fort Collins. She fell in love with the community while attending CSU and has enjoyed promoting the area to visitors for more than 6 years. Her passions include being involved in the community and exploring the great Colorado outdoors with her family.
Kathi Wright
Kathi Wright is the executive director of Boys & Girls Clubs of Larimer County. Since Wright started, she has led capital campaigns and built two new 20,000 square-foot clubs, Fort Collins in 2001 and Loveland in 2009.
Craig Secher
Craig Secher is a published author on behavioral research and has served in the field of child protection in Larimer County for the past 24 years. He has dedicated his life to benefit of local youth and was honored to have the opportunity to be part of the Leadership and Academic All-Stars program and support the exceptional young people recognizes.
Thompson Valley High School
Leadership and Academic All-Stars 2014 ÂŤ 15
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