By Rachel Vigil

During Simone LeBaron’s high school experience, she has made plenty of memories including having huge roles in school musicals and choir concerts all four years at Wheat Ridge.

She also was elected choir librarian, a musical student captain and Bobby G. Social Networking Liaison. LeBaron was also involved in the Curtain Playhouse where she played significant roles in Godspell, Mulan, Les Miserables, and The Little Mermaid.

Outside of school, she was involved in weekly music therapy sessions with Alzheimer’s patients at the Wheat Ridge Senior Resource Center and is a bakery assistant and over-the-counter sales worker at Happy Cakes Bakeshop.

LeBaron’s capacity for empathy is her best quality. “Everything I read and see I feel for whoever it is. And the knowledge that I’m not doing anything burns me,” she stated. Her friends and family say that her sense of humor and imagination are also some of her best qualities.

This summer, LeBaron plans to travel to Germany with her choir and then with her parents to Spain and France to see Prado Museum and Park Guell. She also wants to work at the cupcake factory, read, go on plenty of adventures with her friends, and attend Colorado State University as an English major with a focus in creative writing. She also plans on minoring in Spanish and hopefully studying abroad in a Spanish-speaking country. LeBaron also hopes to have a published novel that is enjoyable but impactful. With these dreams she also hopes to travel the and see the world.

If LeBaron could relive her high school years she wishes that she hadn’t been so afraid and shy her first two years. English Teacher Matt Couch is her biggest inspiration because he convinced her that her heart lay in writing and books and says that her last words to him would be, “Thank you and Oh Captain! My Captain!”

LeBaron also says that she going to miss choir and the friends she made there. “Choir has made an intense impact on my life and even when it broke my heart, it made me strong. I made lasting friendships there and I don’t want to lose them.”

Simone’s last words to the remaining farmers are, “Wear sunscreen, drink milk, and don’t make excuses just because you are afraid.”