North Star senior shines bright with selfless attitude

North Star High School senior Brianna has inserted the positive codes of humility, helpfulness and hard work into her life’s award-winning database.
 
Brianna has become a role model for many students and teachers on North Star’s campus by displaying a full bandwidth of admirable traits. She has successfully balanced academics, activities, work responsibilities and family medical emergencies during her time in high school.

 
Holly Gonsor has been Brianna’s school counselor for two years and has watched her soar over many hurdles. She said it was uplifting to listen to Brianna talk with both humility and compassion about her goal of helping other people.
 
“It makes me proud when I hear it from my students,” Gonsor said. “And the thing about Brianna is she’s so genuine about it. Sometimes people say that, and they say it to say it, but their actions don’t speak it. But hers do. Her actions reflect what she says. She’s very genuine in what she says and what she does.”

 
North Star Principal Megan Kroll said she was impressed with the way Brianna has approached life. Brianna is a future first-generation college student who will study software engineering after graduation.
 
“She manages a lot and still is an amazing student, humble and has worked through so much,” Kroll said.
 
Brianna’s older brother attends the Independence Academy at Lincoln Public Schools, and she has supported him in all of his life’s pursuits. She also participates in unified bowling, is an employee at a local senior care facility and encourages her co-writers on a school literary magazine.
 
What does she like best about helping other people?
 
“Just making sure that everyone is able to do whatever they want to do and have fun and have a good experience,” Brianna said. “That’s pretty much what that’s about. That’s why I like helping my brother out. I make sure he has good experiences and he has fun and he knows he can do whatever he wants to do. That’s what I like about helping people.”

 
Brianna earned good grades at her former high school, and she continued to excel in the classroom after transferring to North Star. She has completed many advanced math courses and has collected multiple academic honors. She also travels to another LPS high school daily to take her fourth year of a German foreign language class.
 
Brianna serves as editor-in-chief of this year’s “Istoria” literary magazine, which has become one of the top student publications in the state. It earned a superior rating in this past year’s Recognizing Excellence in Art and Literary Magazines (REALM) contest held by the National Council of Teachers of English. Brianna and staff advisor Katherine Hill are guiding an 18-person staff.

 
Brianna joined North Star’s unified bowling program after hearing glowing reviews about it from her brother. She had the same positive experiences with her classmates at area bowling alleys.
 
“It was fun,” Brianna said. “He always talked about how he liked it so much and had a lot of fun, so I wanted to try it out, and I liked it too.”

One of Brianna’s biggest challenges came last semester. Her brother became sick and had to undergo surgery at a local hospital. Instead of feeling overwhelmed by the situation, Brianna was determined to provide the caring words he needed every day.
 
“When her brother was in the hospital, she was coming to school all day and then she would go to work and then go to the hospital, do her homework there, and then go home, go to sleep and do it all over again every day,” Gonsor said. “It was pretty inspiring to watch.”
 
“Sometimes he was getting sad and in low spirits,” Brianna said. “It’s about taking care of him, so that was my priority, and that will always be my priority.”

 
Brianna’s brother is now out of the hospital and doing well. She said his classmates played a big role in his recovery.
 
“He had a lot of support at school,” Brianna said. “At the Independence Academy, where he is now, all of his classmates wrote him a big stack of letters one day, so I took him all these letters. He was very happy reading all those cards and letters, and everyone just wanted him to feel better.”
 
Gonsor smiled as she listened to Brianna give credit to others.
 
“She’s a very hard worker,” Gonsor said. “Even though she’s a hard worker and gets really good grades, the thing I like most about Brianna, which you can see in her face right now, is that she’s really humble, and it almost makes her uncomfortable having anybody give her praise.”

 
Brianna said her goal as a software engineer is to create products that make it easier for people to navigate technology. Gonsor said that selfless attitude is why Brianna has made such a positive impact on North Star’s campus.
 
“She genuinely just enjoys helping people and making their life better and making them happy,” Gonsor said. “You can see that in the way she treats people all the time.”

Congratulations, Brianna!
We wish you the best in your future endeavors.
We are thankful our educators could help you Launch at LPS!

Looking for LPS graduation information? Check out our graduation page at https://home.lps.org/graduation/ to get the details on celebrating your favorite high school grad.

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