Whatever potion the Heslop family is brewing in their back lab, they should bottle it and sell it in restaurants. For the second year in a row, Troy and Adisa Heslop will watch a daughter cross the stage at a high school graduation ceremony bearing the special honor of valedictorian.
This coming Saturday, Alexis Heslop and three of her brightest classmates will be recognized for maintaining 4.0 grade point averages across the whole of their respective high school careers.
Heslop follows closely on the heels of Taylor, her “super smart” (credit: Alexis) sister, who stockpiled A’s during her four years at IHS, too.
HESLOP will attend Allen Community College in the fall — and for next to nothing, too, thanks to the Presidential Scholarship — before transferring to Pittsburg State University, where she will major in nursing. After graduation, she hopes to be certified as a midwife.
Besides being a great student, Heslop is a maestro of poetic concision. Asked why she wants to be a midwife, the instantly likable Heslop regales the hearer with blunt logic: “I don’t like small children, but I love babies.”
Asked why, given the novelty and cultural enticements of the big city, she wants to return to Iola after she completes her college education — in other words, why wouldn’t a smart, young professional instead want to make her life in, say, Kansas City? — Heslop has this to say: “Too many people, not enough trees.”
And she offers this summary of what it means to attend a high school the size of Iola’s, and what it means to “know” all of your schoolmates: “It means you are acquainted with everyone, you can go up and talk to them, but you wouldn’t invite them to spend the night.”
Finally, asked whether her parents are pleased that the straight-A student was named a Class of 2017 valedictorian: “They said they wouldn’t care if I got all F’s. But they’re proud that I didn’t.”
IF HESLOP isn’t the most industrious of the four valedictorians, certainly none is more industrious. For the past two and a half years, Heslop has worked at Iola’s Sonic Drive-In. She is currently an assistant manager. She works five days a week, and is in charge of closing the restaurant on those days. She leaves Sonic at midnight or 1 a.m. and is up for school the next morning by 7.
“Actually, I used to work six days a week,” explained Heslop, a little apologetically, “but now I have my CNA class, and so I decided to tone it down to five days.”
Somewhere in there she finds time for homework and for Future Business Leaders of America and for student council and for her duties as the sector leader of the local Drug-Free Communities group.
But she won’t allow any of that to knock her off the beam work-wise. “It’s important to me to be able to save my money,” said Heslop. “I don’t spend it.” What is she saving up for? “To not be in debt for college. When I go to Pitt, it will be really expensive.”
