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MONTEREY, La. — Just like when Babe Ruth called his shot when he hit a home run in the 1932 World Series, Monterey High School fifth-grader and Concordia Parish Student of the Year Aubrey Rose Harrell is looking skyward and aiming high with her dreams.

When asked what she dreams of being when she grows up, Harrell said, “An astronaut or softball coach.”

As Harrell excels both in the classroom and on the field, Harrell feels she is well on her way to doing either of those things.

“I’m really good and have been doing great in school and I feel like if I just worked more on my own science and learned some more I might be able to be an astronaut,” she said.

In conjunction with the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE), the Louisiana Department of Education recognizes outstanding fifth, eighth, and 12th-grade students who have demonstrated excellence in leadership, academic performance, achievements, citizenship, and service to the school and community through the Students of the Year program. The senior and eighth-grade students honored are Ragde Torres and Kathryn “Ryn” Porter at Concordia Parish Academy.
“I am very excited, happy and proud of myself for being named a district student of the year,” Harrell said.

Harrell, the daughter of 

As a Student of the Year, Harrell was called by a panel of judges from outside of the parish for a virtual interview where she had to answer questions about herself.

“I was very nervous,” she said. “They asked if I had a lot of money, what would I do with it.”

After thinking a moment on the answer, Harrell told them she would help feed the homeless and orphaned children.

She also loves to travel with her parents Elijah and Chelsea Harrell along with her brother, Isaiah, and dreams of going to new and exciting places, “somewhere I’d want to vacation at,” she said.

Harrell said she enjoys the mountains of Colorado and Wyoming where she likes to go skiing

Harrell also enjoys painting and drawing and most of all playing softball.

She is active in the 4-H Club and is the Vice President of her school’s Beta Club, she said. Outside of school, she attends New Era Baptist Church, where she enjoys helping out her mom in the church nursery.

She looks up to her parents and most of all to Jesus and God, she said. “I doubt anyone could live a sinless life but if we could it would make the world a better place.”