By Brenda Erdahl
Only seniors with a 3.0 grade point average or higher who excel in academics, athletics and fine arts can attain the status of Triple ‘A’ winner for their school for a shot at a state level award.
In Maple Lake, those seniors are Kass Fynboh and Nick Lind.
Fynboh and Lind, academic leaders of this year’s senior class, were chosen to represent Maple Lake High School in the 36th annual Minnesota State High School League sponsored Academics, Arts and Athletics competition, commonly known as Triple ‘A’.
Maple Lake Triple ‘A’ winners were recognized at a banquet in January, along with nominees from 12 other schools in Sub-Section 17. The banquet is also a competition where nominees are judged on their applications and a short speech. The winners go on to the Region 5 banquet for a chance at the Triple ‘A’ Award On-Court Recognition Ceremony at the Boys’ State Basketball Tournament in March and a shot at a $4,000 scholarship.
Academics
Fynboh maintains a 4.021 GPA while undertaking a rigorous workload including numerous college classes as she prepares for graduation and continued education at the University Minnesota, Twin Cities in Material Science and Engineering.
Her favorite class is physics, and she credits her physics teacher Mrs. Melissa Pearson for inspiring her love and further pursuit of science and engineering.
Fynboh said she enjoys school – both the educational and social aspect of it – and said, “it gives me something to do, otherwise, I’d just be sitting at home.”
Lind maintains a 3.8 GPA and undertakes a rigorous workload of college classes. He plans on majoring in Respiratory Therapy at the University of Mary in North Dakota.
He said he enjoys school for the most part. He likes the challenge of it and seeing friends on a day-to-day basis. He said his favorite class right now is Anatomy and Physiology, but his favorite class ever is psychology. It was Mrs. Dawn Klabunde, his high school psyche class teacher who steered him toward his major. He thought about majoring in psychology, but it would mean more time in school than he wants to spend, he said.