Looks Bright: WSJE 7th grader sets sights on bright future
Published 12:17 am Saturday, January 28, 2017
- Makala Borne is a standout student at West St. John Elementary.
EDGARD — Don’t be surprised if you’re driving down the road one day and see a billboard reading, “Vote for Makala Borne.”
Then again, when you go into the hospital to deliver your baby, she might just be there to help.
Or, you might just pick up the newspaper one day and see her byline on a story. That’s if you don’t read about her in the sports section.
Makala, 13, has lots of plans to rule the world.
For now, however, she is a budding politician and promising athlete at West St. John Elementary School.
Her first political office is president of the student council at the school, a position she won after handing out treats and giving a speech to her fellow students.
“I just felt I’d be good at it,” she said. “I like to help my fellow students.”
Makala, the daughter of Naomi Borne and Damon Boudoin, said she loves reading and writing.
She also enjoys tutoring her fellow students in math, language arts and science, plus she reads to the first and second graders at the school.
“That’s the hardest,” she said of her tutoring days. “Sometimes they’re good, sometimes they’re not.”
As student council president, Makala got to help plan many of the school functions, including homecoming week (she also served as a maid on the court), Fall Festival and Red Ribbon week.
“She believes in community service,” West St. John Elementary School principal Chantell Walker said. “If there’s ever a student in need, I know I can go to her, as one of our student leaders, and she will assist that particular student. We try to give our seventh graders more responsibility. We try to give them more of a leadership role.”
Added Walker: “We try to get their views on different things. We need to listen to them.”
One of the things Makala got to do was organize the school’s Red Ribbon Week.
“I got to pick the stuff they did during the days of the week,” she said. “That was fun. It’s a lot of responsibility.”
While she might love holding office and being in a leadership role, she thinks about being a nurse someday.
“One where they deliver babies,” she said.
That is if her athletic career doesn’t work out, though.
Makala is the school’s standout athlete, who plays basketball, volleyball and runs track.
Volleyball is her favorite.
“It’s what I’ve been doing the longest,” she said. “I’ve been playing since I was in the fourth grade and I’ve developed.”
She even has some varsity experience already. When a conflict left the West St. John High School team needing players for a game in Houma, Makala was asked to go.
“It made me want to keep doing it,” she said. “When I get to high school, I’m going to play all sports.”