This is the 13th profile of 20 about The Gazette’s Best & Brightest Class of 2011.

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Natalie Pate’s resume shows she does a little bit of everything.

From all kinds of performance, student leadership, volunteerism and a dash of sport, there’s not a whole lot Pate hasn’t done — or at least tried. That’s because, she said, during her freshmen year she did nothing.

“When I realized the last year of my life I hadn’t done what I wanted, from then on, I just wanted to do as much as I could,” Pate said. “For me, the more the merrier. I just wanted to try everything.”

So she got involved in Yoga Club and Recycling Club, tutored younger students, starred in school musicals, tried “every sport imaginable” and was awarded “best dancer” by her school’s drama club. Truly, there is little she hasn’t been involved in.

From her vast scope of exploration, Pate has come out focused on funneling her strengths into her future.

She has accepted a performance scholarship to Willamette University in Oregon, where she will sing, dance and act as a means of subsidizing the first in a long stretch of degrees on her list of goals.

“Performance has always been a passion of mine, but I didn’t want it to be a career path.

It was something I did in my free time for expression,” she said. “For a career I want to do something to help people.”

She plans to study International Affairs with the intent of attending law school.

As a volunteer during the 2008 Presidential election, Pate’s eyes were opened to the world’s many issues.

“I feel like I had been really closed off. I just hadn’t realized the things that were going on around the world,” she said.

Eventually, she wants to serve in the Peace Corps and continue earning advanced degrees.

NATALIE PATE

Lewis Palmer High School

Parents: Michael and Lisa Pate

College Plans: Willamette University, International Affairs

Other: Dog Mill Rescue Center volunteer; Senior Class Secretary; Lead role, fall 2010 LPHS performance of “Once Upon a Mattress;” National Honor Society; English and math tutor.

Natalie Pate Photo by