Senior Harper Schoendaller had been a loyal, hardworking, and heavily involved student throughout her 4 years at BHS. This year, she is very active in multiple sports, clubs, and activities. Harper works very hard to make sure everything is well-balanced.
“The hardest part about being heavily involved at BHS is balancing every activity,” Harper said. “Being the Dance Team Captain, Environmental Club President, Vice President in STUCO all four years, multi-sport athlete, and being a member of several other clubs, it becomes challenging to stay active in every extracurricular activity.”
Though it is hard to keep the balance, Harper enjoys every second of being heavily involved.
“My favorite part about being heavily involved in the school is being able to collaborate with a large variety of students,“ she said. “It is super important to interact with classmates that are not just in your grade.”
Harper participates in track and field and has competed in the triple jump and javelin. Coach Mike Spielman has been Harper’s Track and Field coach for 4 years.
“Harper is very driven and hard to do her best,” Coach Mike Spielman said. “She is very good at taking coaching and applying it to the event.”
Harper will be attending Emporia State University which is about an hour away from Baldwin and signed for javelin in early April.
“I am super excited to compete as a Hornet at ESU,” Harper said. “I am so blessed to continue my athletic career and compete at the collegiate level. I cannot wait to see my improvement with the javelin, and be surrounded by other athletes who share the same love for track and field.”
Harper was the co-captain of the BHS dance team. She has been on the dance team for the past 4 years.
“Harper has been dancing since she was five years old,” her dance team coach and mother Hailey Schoendaller said. “She has danced for Cooper Studios in Iola, Kansas and Spotlight Dance Academy in Ottawa, Kansas. In middle school, Harper decided to begin focusing on athletics, so she stepped away from studio dancing.”
Harper is a very talented dancer and next year she is going to dance for Emporia State University.
“Harper is incredibly strong, both physically and mentally,” Hailey said. “She is very motivated and determined to succeed. As a dancer, she lights up a stage and draws the attention of a crowd.”
“Some of my favorite things about her include her ability to truly see people, their genuineness or lack thereof,” Hailey said. “She gravitates toward people who are also highly-motivated, honest, loyal and independent thinkers. She loves fiercely and makes me laugh every day.”
Harper will be working towards a Health and Human Performance major and plans to become a physical therapist. worked hard to achieve her academic and athletic goals in high school, which will continue throughout college. Her goals for college are to become a better athlete and keep a high GPA in her classes.
“As a high schooler, I keep myself to a high standard and push myself to excel in my athletics and academics; I plan to keep these goals as I attend college,” Schoendaller said.