Layne Kiefer

Name: Layne Kiefer

Parents: Robin and Tim Kiefer

GPA: 4.24

Class Rank: 1 of 24

Co-curricular activities: Band, Orchestra, Student Council, National Honors Society, and 4H

Community activities: I volunteer at Wayland Mennonite’s food bank every other week.

Future plans and goals: I intend to get my bachelor’s degree in International Studies and my career goal is to work for the State Department.

How will your high school experiences help you in coming years?

WACO is a very community-involved school, where everyone helps each other out. Going to school here has taught me to be less self-centered and to focus more on the welfare of others, which I think will definitely help me in college and later in my career, especially since I want to work in foreign policy, a field that requires humanitarian thinking.

Fondest memory of high school?

My fondest memory of high school was probably prom my freshman year. My prom date was nice, the music was good, and there was a bounce house at after-prom. I think it was one of the only times it was over 70 degrees at night in early April. Also, they served ice cream.

Which teachers have had the biggest impact on your education and why?

I would say the teacher that has taught me the most would be our school’s art teacher, Ms. Peters. Although I haven’t taken any art classes in high school, Ms. Peters has led the school’s Talented and Gifted program, which I’ve been a part of. Ms. Peters encouraged me to look more closely at international affairs as part of the TAG program, which led me toward wanting to work in foreign policy.

Who is your role model and how did they influence you?

I have tons of people that I look up to at WACO, but I would say the most impactful role model I have is someone I don’t even know. Irene Opdyke wrote a book about her experiences as a Polish partisan who saved twelve Polish Jews during World War 2. She was, in her words, “just a girl,” but in her lifetime had saved a dozen Jewish lives, took up arms against the Soviets, and spoke out against neo-Nazis. When I read her book, I started to understand better that regular people like me have an obligation to help others.

What is special about your high school?

As I said earlier, WACO is a very community-involved place. Back when I was in elementary school, there was a really bad tornado that swept through our school district. There was a lot of cleanup and rebuilding that was needed after the storm, so the high school took the day off and the students went out into Noble and Wayland and cleaned up all of the debris. I haven’t heard of many other schools that have done something like that.

If you could go back to when you were a freshman, what advice would you give yourself?

If I could give my freshman year self some advice, I would probably say to break more rules. I think that I was a little too stressed out about following orders in school. I remember bawling my eyes out in junior high because I showed up like three minutes late to math class on a testing day. That was a little bit extreme.