Alyssa LaFleur is a senior at Sky Valley Education Center in Monroe. She has received a congressional gold medal for work in the community and personal accomplishments from U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene. LaFleur, 18, is an accomplished writer who has also studied as much math and science as she could fit in during her high school career.
Q: What did you do to get the congressional gold medal?
A: I was part of the congressional award program for four years. It’s a program that recognizes youth. I had to do 400 hours of community service. I had a whole bunch of projects and got my friends involved to help me. We organized fundraiser dances for the food bank. I volunteered at the library. And I helped here at the school with first through fourth grade science classes. Over the summer, I repainted a covered walkway at the school.
Q: What else is involved with that honor?
A: You have to do expeditions. I ended up going to the Seattle Comicon last year for my silver medal. For the gold medal, I actually went panning for gold in the Cascades for three nights and four days. It wasn’t too bad but there was a lot of mud. We found just a little bit of gold.
I had to do 200 hours of personal development. You have to set a goal and reach it. I participated in NaNoWriMo. That’s National Novel Writing Month. You set a word goal and try to write a novel that long in the month of November. I set a 35,000 and a 50,000 word goal. I wrote enough words but I’m still revising it.
Q: Do you want to publish it?
A: I don’t know, maybe if I get it revised enough. I wrote an urban fantasy and a science fiction novel.
Q: What else keeps you busy?
A: I’m in Running Start. I got the president’s honor at Cascadia Community College. I have a 4.0 in all my classes. I’m taking engineering physics and biology 2 — that’s zoology stuff. I also work part time in the calculus tutoring lab. It’s actually kind of fun but students are usually glad to get it over with.
Q: What is it that makes you want to learn math and sciences?
A: I like the way it describes the world. It’s more quantifiable. I’m glad I took all the different types of science instead of getting my associate’s degree because it helps you see how it’s all connected.
Q: What are your future plans?
A: I want to go to Whitworth University in Spokane. I want to study biology and chemistry or biochemistry.
Q: What do you want to do for a career?
A: I’m not sure yet but I’m thinking about research science or becoming a medical doctor. I would like to discover new knowledge. It’d be nice to help people with the stuff I’ve learned.
Amy Nile: 425-339-3192; anile@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @AmyNileReports.
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