Standout Student: Champlin Park Senior Excels in Academics, Athletics
The school year is winding down at Champlin Park High School, yet there’s no senior slide for Grace Worwa. She carries a 4.2 G.P.A., and she’s just a couple months shy of graduation, but this senior is determined to do her best.
“I think just staying motivated and loving what you do,” Worwa said, when asked about the secret of her success. “So I love playing softball, and I love being in school and learning new things.”
Over the course of her four years at Champlin Park, she’s played multiple sports, and she’s been involved in various student groups.
“She’s something special,” said Nicole Kronzer, Champlin Park’s creative writing teacher.
If you talk to Worwa’s teachers, you get a sense of just how dedicated Worwa is to whatever she puts her mind to.
“She just keeps working until she gets the best product that she possibly can,” Kronzer said.
That’s especially true when it comes to creative writing. It happens to be Worwa’s favorite subject.
“I still remember this poem Grace wrote, and it was about her as an 8th grader pitching at her first varsity softball game,” Kronzer said. “First of all I was like, ‘wait what? You were in 8th grade and pitching in a varsity softball game?’ And second of all, I’m not really a sports person, but I was when I was reading this poem. I was in this poem with her, and I felt everything that she felt, and she just put me right there in her shoes.”
With that high praise, it’s no wonder that Worwa has considered studying creative writing in college.
“I like literature a lot,” Worwa said. “So I like reading the books and understanding what was behind the author’s thoughts when they wrote this sentence or when they made this idea, and how does it relate to the real world.”
The real world offers a realm of possibilities, and teachers say Worwa can have her pick when it comes time.
“If Grace wants to be the president, she will. If she wants to be a neurosurgeon, she will. If she wants to be a poet, she will,” Kronzer said.
Worwa is also one of two seniors at Champlin Park named as semifinalists for the National Merit Scholarship.
She is undecided on a college.
Champlin Park High School
