Family-loving student wins award

Idaho Dairy Farm Families Distinguished Student of the week winner, Ririe High School senior Hailey Lewis, thinks families play a big part in a student’s success.

Lewis spends a fair amount of time at home practicing piano. She enjoys it, but what she really loves is spending time with the family.

“It’s cool growing up with a bunch of siblings because there’s never a dull moment in your house,” Lewis said. “It helps because you have lots of best friends. Your family is everything, so you always have best friends you can tell anything to that you can trust.”

There are eight kids in the family. The little ones look up to Hailey as an example. She feels the same way, being a senior this year in high school.

“It’s cool having all the underclassmen and trying to be a good example to them — just making them see that high school really is a good experience and is really fun.”

Ririe has a small high school and that’s something Lewis feels is a plus.

“There’s way more one-on-one time with your teachers and you make better friends I think — you are able to meet everybody and get to know them and it’s really fun,” Lewis said.

The family supports Lewis in all the activities she’s involved in, including basketball, volleyball, track, show choir and yearbook.

But with a near-perfect GPA, it’s evident that academics is a major focus.

“Mainly focus on school work — that helps so much to never have to be stressed about grades because you work hard and keep them up and you do your work, so school comes first no matter if you’re in sports or you’ve got clubs, you’ve got to make sure to keep your grades up,” Lewis said.