By PAULINE ALTERIO

    Meet Paige Kephart: an outgoing senior at Bellefonte Area High School, loved by all her peers and teachers alike. She is a warm, friendly person, who greets anyone with a kind demeanor and who is best recognizable in the halls by her amiable smile. 

    Beyond her welcoming demeanor, Paige is treasurer of the National Honor Society, Key Club, and the Spanish Honor Society; a member of Raider Revolution and senior Class Cabinet; and most recently, a holder of one of the highest senior GPAs in the Class of 2022.

    Paige says her journey to today has taken strength and perseverance, but she is grateful for her current abilities and those who helped guide her here. Senior Claire Topper, a close friend of Paige’s, recounts her admiration for Paige’s personal conviction and strength.

    “Paige is the most determined, fierce, and hardworking person I know,” Claire said. “Paige makes me want to work harder and be a better person. She inspires me to take on difficult things and to stick to things until I get where I want to be.”

    Claire isn’t the only person inspired by Paige. Throughout her work in National Honor Society and AP history classes, teacher Mrs. Christine Morris has come to know Paige quite well, and describes her as a determined, upstanding student who is always willing to help others.

    “Paige is a conscientious student who is willing to help her peers, and she is very loyal to others,” Mrs. Morris said. “She is a very inquisitive, honest, and wonderful friend.”

    That determination, though, has only come to be after years of hardship. In the past four years alone, Paige says she had to endure the loss of her grandmother, her father becoming disabled, and mental health struggles through the pandemic. Yet she remains optimistic, explaining she is a better person for all her pain.

    “Today, I am strong, independent, intelligent, more outgoing, and more than anything, excited for my next chapter,” Paige said. “I’ve [dealt] with some losses here and there, but I have learned to enjoy life a little bit more.”

    That optimistic mantra is something Paige hopes to take with her in life after high school. Paige says she will attend either Edinboro University or the University of Pittsburgh to earn a BSN and ultimately work towards a Master’s degree to practice neonatal nursing.

    Before she departs Bellefonte, though, Paige hopes to leave us this:

    “Don’t worry so much about school, cherish those around you and treat yourself to what you deserve. Find time to go prom dress shopping with your friends. Find time for yourself. You can always make up a missed assignment, but you can’t make up a missed experience.”

    Best of luck Paige.