'Natural Born Leader': East Norriton Star Student Thrives

EAST NORRITON, PA — Star Students are found in classrooms, on concert and theater stages and at debate lecterns, and out in the community doing good things to make life better for all of us.

Here at Patch, we've launched an initiative to help recognize Star Students, and we’re working to tell the stories of these outstanding kids to their neighbors.

This submission comes from Larissa Bellamy who nominated Mikayla of East Norriton.

Star local student’s name

Mikayla

What grade is your star local student in?

8th grade

How do you know the star local student?

Daughter

Why do you believe the star local student should be recognized?

Mikayla is an outstanding student athlete at an academically challenging Main Line school.

Mikayla's commute to school is 45 min to an hour each way from East Norriton. She leaves at 6:45 a.m. and does not typically return home until after 6 p.m.

Her favorite sports are basketball and softball. In school she is a natural in languages, she has taken Spanish early in middle school, and excels in Latin, French and English classes, with dreams of traveling the word, stopping in France, Italy and Greece on her first tour. She is captivating on stage, recently she was "Gaston" in Beauty and the Beast. Teachers and students still rave months later about her captivating "One Act", where she was the only student to take on three opposing characters. Her theater teacher and mentor has had a strong stake in unlocking her confidence that secured strong foundations and blossomed far beyond her classroom.

Mikayla created her own club where she led younger middle school students through theater games. She also joined a small school club called Brown Girls Believe (BGB). Mikayla has been a Girl Scout for 5 years. As a cadette, she is working with a partner on a Silver Award in Girl Scouts to recycle cookie cases as scratch boards for cats at the Kitty Cottage (a no-kill cats only shelter), where she volunteered as a pre-teen with her family. She has volunteered with Merck families often, such as Feed My Starving Children, with school at Caring for Friends, and with her family mucking stalls and feeding horses at Sebastian Riding Assoc.

Recently, she volunteered on MLK day at Integrate for Good with her family, learning how to transform plastic grocery bags into a water-proof insulated mat to support our local home insecure community. Mikayla has been a natural leader in every facet of her world since anyone can remember. She is a captain as a brand new player on an AAU basketball team, a strong, dependable leader on her home basketball team in Norristown. Her favorite place on the softball field is behind home plate as a catcher, with the loudest voice on the field to communicate with her teammates. Mikayla is being recognized as a top 1,000 girl scout cookie seller in the South Eastern PA (GSEP) region in May and recently submitted an application to be a Girl Scout leader on the Board of Directors. Every one of these accomplishments are hard fought.

Mikayla worked hard through middle school persisting through a lost bff (our dog/family, Izzy), a broken ankle, illnesses with long term symptoms, severe bullying, and high expectations in a single parent home. Mikayla fiercely loves her family, friends, teammates, school, troop and community and is so very deserving of recognition.

What's one thing you want everyone to know about the star local student?

Mikayla may be quiet at times, but she is emotionally intelligent and shines bright everywhere she goes.

Congratulations on your achievements, and all of our best wishes to you in the future, Mikayla!

This content is brought to our community in partnership with T-Mobile. Know an outstanding student who deserves a shout-out? Nominate them here.