Vidalia — Community involvement, good grades and a positive attitude toward others are just a few things 13-year-old Gracyn Nelson demonstrated to win the honor of Vidalia Junior High School’s student of the year.

Nelson, an eighth grader at VJHS, was recently awarded the title and said she did not expect to receive the award.

“I was kind of surprised,” she said. “I did not know what I did to get the award.”

Nelson will take her title and compete against other eighth graders in the parish for the district-wide title.

The district winner competes on a state level, and Nelson said she hopes she makes it.

“This can help me with my future,” she said. “I’m going to try my best to win.”

Nelson said when she is not busy with schoolwork, she is busy with one of her many extracurricular activities.

Nelson is involved in cheerleading, fast pitch softball, the 4-H advisory council, the juniorettes, ballet and is a former member of the Natchez Swim Team.

“I go to school, go to cheerleading practice or to cheer at a game, come home and do my homework and then go to sleep and wake up and do it all over again,” she said.

Nelson said staying busy with activities helps prepare her for the future.

“It can help you figure out what you want to do,” she said. “It helps get you involved in more than one thing.”

Nelson said she even worked the gates at the Great Mississippi River Balloon Race this weekend to help serve the community.

Nelson said she wants to be a pediatrician.

“I love working with kids,” she said. “I have wanted to do this since around the third grade.”

Nelson said her favorite subject is math.

“It is fun, and has always been easy,” she said. “I am taking classes now that I get high school credit for.”

Nelson said her parents are the influences that help her maintain her As and Bs while she is in school.

Nelson’s mom, Karen, a Vidalia teacher, said Nelson has always applied herself in her schoolwork.

“We have never really had to tell her to do her work,” she said. “She has always done it without me telling her.”

Nelson is the daughter of Paul and Karen Nelson.