Keaton Morrison has not had an ideal life. After being abandoned by his father as a toddler, Keaton was raised in a single parent household with limited resources — but an abundance of love.

Instead of being fixated on the lack of a positive male figure in the home, Morrison has leveraged the support of the Widefield community to become an uncommon achiever. Keaton speaks of his upbringing telling us:

“The people of the community have supported me with full hearts and encouraged me to become the best person I can be. With this support from the community I live in, I have learned to succeed and help others succeed.”

And it shows in every aspect of Keaton’s life. The young man pushes aside barriers that hold others back without complaint. Drawing inspiration from his mother who worked and attended school to support their family, Keaton is grateful for having the necessities of life provided.

Keaton praises his mother saying, “… As my mom has shown, there is no need for us to be down because of the unfortunate challenges we have been faced with. The challenges that I have faced have shown that life may not be perfect, but the ability to enjoy it can be.”

Like all of the students profiled in the Best and Brightest, Keaton is an excellent student. He is currently valedictorian of Widefield High School. His grade-point average is 4.38.

Morrison has been honored by the National Association of Home Builders Pre-Apprenticeship Certificate Training recipient in Plumbing and Electrical. He’s been awarded Academic All-American by the National Speech and Debate Association and earned the OSHA–10 Card Construction Industry National Safety Certificate.

Keaton has won many scholarship honors including The Walter Scott Jr. Undergraduate Engineering Scholarship, semifinalist for the GE-Reagan Foundation, and semifinalist for the Boettcher scholarship.

Although young, Morrison is already exercising community leadership. Over the past two years, he has attended multiple governmental meetings a month, including his school district’s board of education and Colorado Springs Department of Parks and Recreation. Keaton represented his teen peers on specific issues like mitigating asbestos contaminated classrooms and conveying teen community desires for the new community center.

“Keaton Morrison is a natural born leader in every sense of the word”: These are the words of teacher Nicholas Leonard. The softball coach/teacher continues his thought saying, “Kids gravitate towards him, and they can feel that he is genuine in everything that he does.”

His favorite meeting was the one in which he was a student moderator for an election forum. The forum allowed aspiring Widefield District 3 school board candidates to listen to and share with the community. Before the event he gathered questions from many different students at his high school.

When asked what his vision is for his future, Morrison has plans to become an environmental civil engineer. In watching the growth of our communities, he has concerns about destruction of the natural habitat due to unchecked growth. Keaton is also concerned about food deserts and meeting the needs of the disadvantaged.

He feels that the way we build cities must be challenged. Morrison believes that we must focus on denser, walkable neighborhoods that will incorporate nature rather than replace it.

“With this change, there will be stronger focus on the human aspect of our neighborhoods that will inherently support stronger and healthier communities over time.

“My community helped build me from the foundation up, changing my life. I want to spend my life doing the same for others; creating new foundations that will change the world.”

Morrison said a profound thing while sharing with us at The Gazette: “… Family lies within the connections we make throughout our lives.”