Work ethic puts Thompson at top

If genius is 99 percent perspiration and 1 percent inspiration, then Baylea Thompson is on her way to success.
At 18, the IHS senior has developed an admirable work ethic in order to maintain a perfect 4.0 throughout high school.
Long after most of her classmates have said goodnight, Baylea is burning the midnight oil studying for either high school or college classes. Since her sophomore year she has also taken classes at Allen Community College.
She also pitches for the IHS softball team.
“It’s been rough with softball,” the soft-spoken teen said. “Sometimes I don’t get home from a game until 10 o’clock. I’ll still be studying until 2 or 3 in the morning.”
Math, particularly, is a challenge, she said.
She credits IHS math teacher Dianne Kauth for encouraging her to stick it out, “but it still doesn’t make sense to me,” she said. Baylee is currently tackling college algebra and plane trigonometry at ACC. And yes, despite the hurdles, she expects to ace the courses.
That’s the perfectionist in her personality, which she realizes is both a blessing and a curse.
“Most of my friends make good grades, but are not as meticulous as I am,” she said. It wasn’t until her senior year came into sight that Baylea zeroed in on maintaining perfect grades. “I didn’t want to give it up after working so hard,” she said.
Holding herself to such high standards can “stress me out,” Baylea admitted. One coping mechanism is “making lots of lists” to help give her a sense of organization.
And lest you think she’s Little Miss Perfect, you’ll be glad to know “my room and my car are a mess.”

AFTER graduation, Baylea’s first goal is to find a full-time job and then continue at ACC in the fall. Gates Manufacturing had been her default until she recently learned it has been experiencing layoffs. Her father, Breck, is
 a supervisor at Gates, as well as many of her extended family.
Her mother, Michelle, is a social worker at the Department of Children and Families here in Iola.
Pursuing a higher education has been a given in her family, she said.
“My dad has always said he doesn’t want us to end up in manufacturing, like he did,” she said. Her mother went back to college after Baylea and her older sister, Breail, began school. Breail is also graduating this weekend, from Kansas State University with a degree in agriculture.
Baylea is on track to graduate from ACC a year from now and then plans to attends Pittsburg State University, her mother and grandfather’s alma mater, with a goal of attaining a master’s degree in psychology.
Because of financial concerns, Baylea figures she’ll continue to live with her parents possibly the next two years, taking online classes for her first year at PSU while she continues to work full-time.
She’s received two scholarships, the Edward Zahn FFA and the LaHarpe High School Alumni Association Scholarship, which will pay for books, tuition, and incidental expenses at ACC.
It was from mentoring students at Lincoln Elementary that the idea of psychology as a major took root, which came somewhat as a surprise.
From her mother’s line of work, Baylea said she has always shied away from the study of human behavior.
“Being a social worker is very hard. Very stressful,” she said.
Yet, Baylea took to the program.
“I realized I liked working with the kids, I actually enjoyed it,” she said in a bemused tone.

And yet, she hesitates.
“It drives me crazy after being so focused all these years to not have a clear path ahead,” she said. The mere idea of having choices is exhilarating, but at the same time overwhelming.
“At high school we didn’t have a lot of electives,” she said.
If she were guided by her favorite subjects, even that “is all over the map,” she said, and listed agriculture and art as the most engaging.
The ag perspective is easy to understand.
“I’m a country girl,” Baylea said. Though she and her family now live in town, Baylea fondly remembers life in the country. Bonfires, swimming in ponds, having a couple of pigs or steers to enter at the county fair. And that rascally pet donkey that was worthless as far as shepherding, but awfully cute.
In school, she took naturally to everything agricultural: ag science, animal science, plant and horticultural science, ag and business communications and research and agriculture.
“Mr. Kerr was great,” she said of Charlie Kerr, the ag instructor.
And then there’s art.
Painting still life pictures was her best art form, she said, and credited art instructor Amy Shannon with being instrumental in getting her to think outside the box.

TRUTH BE told, Baylea is looking forward to taking a minute after graduation to reflect on these past few years and re-evaluate plans for the future.
“I’ll definitely miss my teachers and seeing my friends every day,” she said. Softball, and the camaraderie that comes with playing a team sport, will come to an end. “I won’t be keeping that up. It takes up too much time, traveling to games and all. From now on the focus will be on my education and work.”
With graduation, most of her friends will scatter.
“A couple are going to ACC. One to Independence Community College. Some to the bigger universities.”
That she is staying around suits her — for the time being.
“All my family is here and they are great support,” including seeing Baylea is equipped to flee the proverbial nest.