GOLDEN VALLEY, Minn. - It's just a guess but the bet here is that when Cretin-Derham Hall senior Alexa Klaus cried when she found out she won $1,111 in our first-ever year-end Academic All-Star drawing.
The names of 33 outstanding high school seniors were put on paper, cut out, and placed into a school back pack. One was to be drawn out with that person winning $1,111 courtesy of TruStone Financial in our first-ever Academic All-Star year-end drawing.
All 33 students were outstanding and each was deserving of this bonus honor but the name drawn was especially appropriate. Lexie Klaus is a young woman who not only excels in her studies but one who also wears her overly large heart on her sleave.
When we surprised Lexie last November the captain of the math team and a member of the National Honor Society wept openly when she found out she had been selected as a KARE 11 Academic All-Star. Lexie, who at the time was carrying a 4.5 weighted GPA, plays the oboe, was a member of the color guard, and she also turned up in the KARE 11 Backyard last spring when she helped her CDH physics class demonstrate an experiment on KARE 11 Sunrise.
Lexie's dad is a horse trainer and Lexie's been riding and showing horses since she was 2 years old. It's a love affair that only deepened through her involvement with Equine Allies, an organization that tries to find foster homes for abandoned horses.
Lexie plans to attend Notre Dame in the fall and her win is not only an instance where a good person is rewarded for her hard work and good deeds in the community but just maybe was also a good reason for a good, old-fashioned cry.
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