Student Spotlight: Cheyanne Holliday

Ledyard Middle School student Cheyanne Holliday was one of four Ledyard students who received awards last month from the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents. The CAPSS awards are given to students who are both outstanding scholars and make significant service contributions to their communities.

Cheyenne was introduced by Ledyard Middle School guidance counselor Patty Pollin as a person who is aware of the people around her. “When Cheyenne asks you how you are, she really wants to hear what is going on with you. Her offers to help come naturally,” Pollin said.

Here’s what else she said about Cheyanne.

“She is a solid student, always prepared, inquisitive, and always ‘gets Mrs. Woodruff’s jokes.’  Cheyenne reads Shakespeare and can have academic discussions with a teacher just for the love of learning.  You will often see her with four books she’s working on at the same time.

“She is interested in her future and has many ideas about what she is working toward – psychology, criminology, law, graphic/web design, maybe the military.

“With Cheyenne it is never about her, but about the bigger picture.  Cheyenne will look out for others.  Without being asked she will patiently work with those who need some extra time to understand a concept. 

“Teachers agree that Cheyenne is engaged, well-spoken, goes above and beyond, and is one of the most polite students they have.  She is the one who keeps everyone on task – at just the right times she’ll say ‘lets get back to what we were doing.’

“Cheyenne and her family were featured in the Resident last year for their work with MASH (Mystic Area Service and Hospitality).  MASH puts their resources into helping families who are homeless or at risk of losing their housing.  Cheyenne has helped raise money and awareness through a brunch sponsored by Coogan-Gildersleeve in Mystic. She prepared food for a free brunch of kielbasa, eggs, sausages, pancakes.  Her efforts helped Coogan-Gildersleeve raise $4,000 for local families in need.

“Sometimes local and very old cemeteries are not taken care of so she is also involved in ‘adopt a cemetery’ cleanup operations, also with her family.

“In school, she has become an integral part of our community – stage manager for ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.’  As a member of the Art Club, she built sets and worked on costume designs.  To do this work, she gave up her lunches and came to LMS on weekends.

“Ms. Szell calls her a ‘go-getter.’  She noticed that Cheyenne was doing a particularly great job on a project and asked her to join the newspaper to be the layout person.  Not only did she join but she took charge of the computer graphics and layout, working mostly on her own time.  She even convinced her stepdad to get involved and he had offered to print copies of the newspaper.  Everyone is commenting on how great the LMS newspaper looks this year. 

“Cheyenne took off from there and as a member of the Student Council has worked on the graphic design for the LMS food drive and for the Toys for Tots posters hanging around the school.   She is currently working on a coin drive for David’s Place.  She initiated the project, asked for approval from Mr. Chella and is off and running.  If a total number of coins is collected, the whole school will get a free hat day.

“Cheyenne, you have become someone that we can count on and we think that you are an awesome role model.  We are proud to present you to Dr. Graner for this award.”