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Shelby Lessen

Hartsburg-Emden

Principal:

Hartsburg-Emden's Shelby Lessen is not just heavily involved in sports, but music as well. Add to that, speech team, scholastic bowl, spelling and geography bee, and 4-H and this teenager doesn't have much free time!

It might very well be Shelby's grandmother who inspires her to use her time wisely. She says her grandmother, Frances Lessen, died after a long battle with cancer and she's the person Shelby most admires for how she handled the experience. Shelby says her grandmother never complained about her situation and continued to attend her school functions, make cookies, and share her positive attitude.

Shelby demonstrates her own positive attitude in describing the feat for which she's most proud of herself. She says it was making 1st chair at the IMEA District Band Festival in eighth grade after earning 3rd chair in sixth and 2nd chair in 7th grades. She says she worked extremely hard to make it happen.

Shelby wants to spend her adult years as a chemist or research doctor finding cures for disease, particularly cancer, having lost both grandmothers to the disease.

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