This is the 16th of a series of 20 profiles of The Gazette’s Best and Brightest Class of 2020.

Sarah Parker is a selfless, caring person. That alone would be a great description for anyone. But there is so much more to her than that. Cheyenne Mountain High School staff have called her the epitome of hard work, ability and talent.

She has a 4.22 GPA, and a 1,500 SAT. She has won many awards. In 2019 she won the AP Scholar with Distinction award, the Colorado Congress of Foreign Language Essay and Video Contests 1st place (she and her partner made a video and wrote the script) and in 2018, the Golden Test Tube Award for Chemistry, to name a few.

So talented a student, she jumped from Spanish II to Spanish IV (sophomore year). From there she advanced to AP Spanish Literature (junior year), one of her favorite classes (AP Literature typically comes after AP Language, so this was an unusual switch).

Sarah played field hockey for six years and volunteered at both the Junior High Field Hockey summer camp and her high school’s Sports Sampling Camp. She believes that cultivating an eager sense of adventure and hard work in the students of field hockey inspires character growth and helps the future generation find its sense of self.

Something very important to Sarah is being a member of her school’s Link Crew, which guides incoming freshmen and builds community. For her it has been the most rewarding and impactful part of high school.

Also of great value to Sarah is tutoring her neighbor in math. Through tutoring she has seen her student blossom into a confident, assured person in all aspects of life. Sarah says that tutoring one girl in math will not dramatically alter the course of the world, but can say with certainty that it will improve her world.

She had good examples of caring people. Her father was an EMT and firefighter and her mother a kindergarten teacher.

A compassionate person, Sarah says “my biggest priorities in life are to ensure that everyone around me feels welcomed and included in their environment, and for this reason I dedicate a great deal of my time to building a sense of unity within my community.” She is passionate about making an impact in the lives of others.

As bright as she is, Sarah is no stranger to challenges. Advanced Placement BC Calculus was such a challenge. Six weeks into the semester, she took an exam and received her lowest test score ever.

Defeated but determined, she figured out what she did wrong, developed an effective system of studying, then flourished.

Sarah will be attending the University of Rhode Island. She is refreshingly and healthily honest with herself and does not lay out her future in detail but plans to study chemistry and Spanish.

She believes that learning different languages and cultures helps to connect us all. “We’re all humans, we just speak different languages.”

With uncertainty about the exact form chemistry will take in her life, she wants to study it forever, as she loves figuring out how the world works.

Cheyenne Mountain High School

College Plans: University of Rhode Island  

Parent(s): Courtney and Steve Parker  

Other:  Academic Letter; AP Scholar with Distinction; National Merit  Commended

Parker, SarahBESTBRIGHT2020