BETHEL — When Telstar and the Rotary Club awarded freshman Gabrielle Thompson student of the month for October, they praised her as being a quiet leader.
But Thompson contributes to the role in more ways than detailed in the write-up. To start, she’s been playing soccer since second grade, playing defense. She plays for Telstar High School under Coach Scott.
“[I] really liked my coach. And [that’s] made it a lot more enjoyable. I just like the way we train. He makes it fun,” says Thompson.
Thompson also enjoys reading. Her favorite types of books are fantasy/magical realism novels. While she doesn’t have a favorite novel because there are too many to choice, she’s currently reading a fantasy novel called, The Grace Year.
“I’m only a couple pages in,” says Thompson. “Once [the] girls reach the age of 16, they need to be sent out for a year because they get magical powers and stuff.”
She’s also a member of the Civil Rights Team at Telstar. They advocate for underrepresented voices and speak up for them. One of the events the team did recently was a welcome day. Maine has a wheel with different colors, and each color represents a specific group; green represents disabilities; light or dark blue are gender expression and identity; religion is represented by purple.
For the day of welcome, members the Civil Rights Team each dressed up in one color and, “all these different colors just show that everyone’s welcome in school,” finishes Thompson.
Thompson is also thinking creatively when it comes to her school work.
“We’re in like, the middle of doing this project called the Think Tank, and you’re with a group of people. I’m with two other people,” says Thompson. “It’s like a playoff, a shark tank where you get this worldwide problem, and then you need to make a product for it.”
“I’m not really sure what’s gonna happen when we present the actual problem … we present in front of a panel of sophomores and they gave you like feedback,” says Thompson.
“She is a quiet leader, a good role model in the classroom, and a great team member,” says the write-up of Thompson by Telstar and the Rotatory Club upon winning the student of the month freshman aware.
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