A renaissance woman?

by

by David Safier

The headline may overstate things a bit, but allow this retired high school English teacher a little license. I love stories like this.

Twenty year old Noelle Lopez, Tucson native and Salpointe grad, has won a Rhodes Scholarship and will study at Oxford.
Noelle_Lopez
The best part for me are the other qualities Lopez possesses beyond her scholarly achievement, which is more than enough to earn her praise. 

Lopez was named Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year by the Arizona Daily Star in 2004.

As a high school teacher, my experience with cross country runners was that they were almost all academic achievers. The average GPA of the team tended to be well over 3.5. There must be something about the grit and endurance it takes to pound out mile after mile that's equivalent to the perseverance it takes to excel in school.

And she volunteered at Habitat for Humanity and the Casa Maria soup kitchen when she was at Salpointe.

And she plans to study Philosophy at Oxford, "focusing on virtue ethics."

But wait, it gets better for this old English teacher.

She discovered her enthusiasm for philosophy in her literature courses with teacher Kerry Demers at Salpointe, she said.

[snip]

"I thought about all of the amazing teachers that I've had and how they've influenced me, . . . and I realized that education is very powerful in actually effecting change in the world," she said.

We should be proud of our native daughter. Best of luck, Noelle.

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