Take the high school valedictorian, the varsity athlete, the student leader, the volunteer and the artist. Roll them into one high school senior, and an Academic All-Star is born.

The 2003 Journal-World Academic All-Star Team consists of 10 Lawrence-area high school seniors who each is the vision of a well-rounded student. Many are as adept on the athletic field as the concert stage. And all certainly are at home in the classroom.

“You look at this and say, you know, there are a lot of really good people doing really good things,” said Robert Harrington, one of three judges who picked the winners. “I see this as representative of what’s great out there.”

The winners are Robert “Mathew” Overbaugh, Tonganoxie High School; Julie Beck, DeSoto High School; Leigh Morris, Ottawa High School; Jenna Wilcox and Lia DeRoin, both of Lawrence High School; Luke Thompson, Merry Chadwick and Annie McEnroe, all of Free State High School; Mark Samsel, Wellsville High School; and Katherine Jorn Lammers, Baldwin High School.

Besides Harrington, a Kansas University professor of psychology and research in education, judges were Earl Kirk, dean of arts and sciences at Baker University; and Angela Lumpkin, dean of the School of Education at KU.

Area high school principals and guidance counselors nominated 29 seniors for the newspaper’s seventh annual team. Winners were selected based on academics, extracurricular activities, community involvement and an essay on what the students would do if they won $100 million.

“They are not net takers, they are net givers,” Kirk said. “They have a strong sense of where they came from, and that’s nice to see.”

The awards were presented during a luncheon Tuesday sponsored by the Journal-World and attended by the winners, their parents and the judges.

In a speech at the ceremony, Lumpkin told the All-Stars they could be whatever they wanted to be, and she encouraged them to remember and thank those who helped them to achieve success: their parents, teachers and community.

“I can assure you there are three judges who believe you are a sign of bright things to come,” Lumpkin said.

Members of the All-Star team received a certificate and a backpack for use during college.

After the ceremony, Thompson, one of the All-Stars, said: “It’s a very generous award and it speaks volumes about the Journal-World’s dedication to the community.”

Twelve area high schools submitted nominees: LHS, Free State, Baldwin, DeSoto, Eudora, McLouth, Oskaloosa, Ottawa, Perry-Lecompton, Santa Fe Trail, Tonganoxie and Wellsville.

Julie Anne Beck

Julie Beck says she is one of the quiet people at DeSoto High School. Those who think she is shy have not seen her play sports.

The 2003 Lawrence Journal-World Academic All-Stars are, from left, Annie McEnroe, Lawrence Free State; Julie Anne Beck, DeSoto; Mark Allen Samsel, Wellsville; Merry Chadwick, Lawrence Free State; Lia DeRoin, Lawrence; Leigh Morris, Ottawa; Robert Mathew Overbaugh, Tonganoxie; Luke Thompson, Lawrence Free State; Jenna Wilcox, Lawrence; and Katherine Jorn Lammers, Baldwin.

In a recent high school basketball game, the daughter of Carter and Sally Beck dislocated her shoulder.

“People call me Wayne Simien,” she said, referring to the Kansas University sophomore basketball star who dislocated his shoulder in a game.

Season-ending injury? Nope. Beck, the team captain, played the rest of the game with the pain.

The student council vice president did not let her gender keep her from playing another of her favorite sports. DeSoto High School does not have a girls’ soccer team. No matter. Beck played with the junior varsity boys.

“It was pretty funny when we played against another team and I scored on them,” she said. “They were like, ‘Don’t let a girl score on you.'”

She especially enjoys playing soccer in the rain. She remembers a game when the whole team was slipping all over the field. She was covered in mud.

“The next day I was named homecoming queen,” Beck said. “That was pretty funny.”

Not much can keep Beck from the sports she loves. She developed a hole in her lung and tendinitis but still ran track. Her regional, league and state championship medals prove that she perseveres.

Beck says sports are a stress reliever for her.

But she and her list of injuries are stressing out her coaches.

¢ Runners-up list impressive academic credentials

“My stubbornness and desire to continue competing have given my coaches more than a few gray hairs,” she said.

Beck’s other passion is community service. She is a buddy program mentor, a church volunteer and an instructor at a basketball camp for children.

Judges for the 2003 Lawrence Journal World Academic All Stars are from left, Earl Kirk, Dean of Arts and Sciences at Baker University, Angela Lumpkin, Dean of Education at KU and Robert G. Herrington professor at the School of Education at KU.

Lia DeRoin

Lia DeRoin has no idea what happened on the last episode of “The Bachelorette.” She doesn’t sit down every Thursday night to watch “Friends,” and soap operas are not exactly her thing.

“It’s funny when people make references to TV and I have no idea what they’re talking about,” she said.

DeRoin grew up in a home without a television. Her parents, Stephen Ellsworth and DeeAnn DeRoin, decided against it.

“We just felt we wanted our children to grow up without the influence of racism, violence and sexism that is on TV,” DeeAnn DeRoin said. She said it was important for her children to spend time reading.

And DeRoin is not complaining.

She said that while her peers would get bored and plop in front of the television, she had to find other ways to entertain herself.

“I think it made me more creative than a lot of my peers,” she said. “It fostered my love for reading. Obviously reading is something that really helps me academically.”

Indeed. DeRoin scored a perfect 36 on three out of four categories of the ACT, including the reading section. Her composite score was a 35. She also was a National Merit semifinalist.

If there were a music section of the ACT, she probably would have aced that, too.

DeRoin began piano lessons at age 4, but it was during her sophomore year at Lawrence High School that music stirred a passion within her. She was selected for the all-state honor band and spent three full days playing music.

She has continued with the honor band for the past three years. She also attended a summer music program at Northwestern University and afterward decided to study music there.

DeRoin, who describes herself as intellectually curious, hopes to become a professional musician or a music professor. She will pursue a degree in percussion performance at Northwestern, leaving her no time to watch television.

Annie McEnroe

Her friends know her as the grammar police.

“They think I’m trying to rid the world of bad grammar,” said Annie McEnroe, Free State High School senior. An avid reader and writer, McEnroe can’t help but correct bad grammar when she hears it.

Next fall the 18-year-old hopes to take her policing duties to Kansas University, or possibly the University of Dallas, where she’ll study English and anything else that strikes her interest.

Eventually, McEnroe wants to write novels but would explore any profession that serves as an outlet for her creativity.

But it’s McEnroe’s discipline as a long-distance runner that has instilled her with a desire to strive for excellence.

“Running is a big part of my life that’s carried over,” she said.

“I’ll push myself in other areas of my life.”

Besides being co-captain of the cross country team, McEnroe filled leadership roles in her church youth group, Model United Nations and student council.

When McEnroe slows down, she enjoys picking up her mandolin and learning bluegrass music, or “all the old-timey stuff that my friends hate,” as she refers to it.

While writers such as Dave Barry and Jane Austen are her heroes, she always has looked to her father as a role model.

“He’s always kept me sane — or tried to — when things got kind of nuts,” she said.

McEnroe is the daughter of Bruce and Michelle McEnroe.

Robert Mathew Overbaugh

Robert Mathew Overbaugh is mister nice guy, and he has the award to prove it.

The Tonganoxie High School senior received the Mr. Nice Guy award from his classmates at the end of his freshman year.

“You see kids that people pick on, and it doesn’t seem right,” Overbaugh said. “I’m a big hug guy.”

Overbaugh is so nice that for the past two years he has cooked Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners for his family. His dad and sister do not know how to cook, which is fine with Overbaugh because cooking is one of his passions.

He is so nice that if he won $100 million, he would take his high school golf team to Pebble Beach Golf Links.

“You see it on TV every year, and it’s the most beautiful course in the country,” he said.

Overbaugh even stopped competing for the title of senior class valedictorian and let the other contenders duke it out. With five seniors maintaining a perfect 4.0 grade point average, Tonganoxie High School had to take ACT scores into account when it chose its valedictorian. Overbaugh took the ACT in April 2002 and received a perfect score in reading.

But rather than compete to the bitter end for the highest test score of his peers, he decided not to take the test again and let another student be valedictorian.

Even Overbaugh’s role models are nice. Notorious nice guy Nick Collison is his favorite Kansas University basketball player.

“He doesn’t show off,” Overbaugh said. “He’s not just trying to get on ‘SportsCenter.'”

Overbaugh possesses a certain edge, however. He wants to graduate from college with a degree in finance or accounting. He would like to live in New York.

“My plan for life is to become an accountant or financial adviser, so I can retire early and go into teaching,” he said.

That’s nice.

Overbaugh is the son of Robert Jay and Emma Overbaugh.

Luke Thompson

Luke Thompson strives to find something in common with every person he meets. That goal, he said, is his motivation behind being involved in so many activities at Free State High School.

“I’m very impressed by people who master a lot of things,” Thompson said.

From Model United Nations to varsity diving and orchestra, Thompson has experienced a wide variety of activities throughout his high school career.

His plans for college are not yet completed, but he is waiting to hear back from his first choice, Princeton University.

While public service as a lawyer or politician is his ultimate career goal, Thompson plans to pursue his passion, creative writing, as a lifelong endeavor.

He has admirable role models who did the same.

“John F. Kennedy was an extremely successful writer,” Thompson said.

In his limited free time, Thompson works on a modernized one-act play of the Greek tragedy “The Oresteia” by Aeschylus.

Even Thompson’s involvement with soccer, one of his favorite sports, is shaded with a public service tone.

After noticing his high school team was dominated by students from the similar socio-economic backgrounds, Thompson wanted to expand the popularity of the sport into more diverse areas.

Instead of going out for the high school team this fall, Thompson founded and coached a soccer clinic for children at the Boys and Girls Club of Lawrence.

“I wanted to expose the kids to soccer at a young age in hopes that they’ll contribute to the high school team when they get older,” Thompson said.

And it doesn’t hurt that Thompson likes children.

“They keep me on my toes,” he said.

Thompson is the son of Todd and Caprice Thompson.

Merry Chadwick

Few high school students would ever think of combining a wood-carving hobby with playing the oboe. But Merry Chadwick did.

She carves her own oboe reeds.

For the Free State High School senior, music has played a large role in her high school career. Aside from earning the first chair position for All-State Band, Chadwick is also a chamber choir section leader and the marching band color guard section leader.

The 17-year-old said she hoped to take her musical talents to St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn., her first choice.

Chadwick said her high school choir teacher, Pam Bushouse, had been a role model and had inspired her to pursue music education in college.

While oboe playing came relatively easy to her ever since she picked it up in sixth grade, she is currently challenging herself with an 11-minute oboe concerto.

“I’ve been learning the meaning of endurance,” she said.

Chadwick said she received a great deal of satisfaction from music and the beauty that can come from a voice, “an instrument that God has given to everyone.”

Also an active member of her church, Chadwick participates in a weekly Bible study on the disciplines of the Christian faith.

Amid an extremely busy high school senior year, Chadwick isn’t letting the pressures of college choices or career plans stress her out.

She’s putting her trust in someone else’s hands.

“God’s been teaching me to wait and trust him,” she said. “He’ll make everything happen.”

Chadwick is the daughter of Dennis and Judy Chadwick.

Katherine Jorn Lammers

Katherine Jorn Lammers’ distinctive laugh is the trademark of her cheerful personality.

“If you know me, you can recognize me by my laugh,” she said. “I’m a cheerful person by nature.”

But she knows how to get serious.

Besides being an Academic All-Star, the Baldwin High School senior is a National Merit Finalist, an accomplished violinist and an avid listener of National Public Radio.

“I really like their news. It’s very thorough and thoughtful,” Lammers said.

She is awaiting acceptance letters from a few colleges and is unsure where she will go next fall. She has expressed interest in both the University of Chicago and Swarthmore College.

No matter where she ends up, the 18-year-old said she hoped to study law in order to, one day, make a difference in the legal system.

“As a lawyer, I’d be able to challenge things,” Lammers said.

She said she disagreed with the Patriot Act and was glad the American Bar Assn. was taking a stand against the legislation.

A violinist since age 4, Lammers earns much satisfaction and success through her music.

“It’s a very positive force that I’ve had in my life,” she said. “I love music.”

In the Youth Symphony of Kansas City, Lammers sat as first violinist. She also played with the Ottawa Suzuki Strings.

Besides her parents, Carl Lammers and Jana Jorn, Lammers said her violin instructor, Alice Joy Lewis, was the most influential person in her life.

In studying and playing music, Lammers has seen how music can offer a different understanding of the world. Music, Lammers said, has a language all its own.

“My favorite composer is Beethoven. In his music, he is very joyful,” she said.

Not surprising coming from a person so known for her laugh.

Leigh Morris

There is no doubt Leigh Morris is smart. The Ottawa High School senior is also athletic, musically-gifted and a leader. The captain of the soccer team, choreographer of the show choir and student council member also counsels elementary schoolchildren on bullying and smoking.

But all that is secondary.

“What’s most important is that I’m a Christian,” said the daughter of Robert and Nanette Morris. “That’s a big part of my life.”

So big that Morris spent a day and a half on a bus to Mexico for 10 days of missionary work. While most people would cringe at the thought of driving from Kansas to Mexico, Morris said the ride was nice.

Her only discomfort came in Texas when her group switched to a school bus without air-conditioning for the remaining six hours of the trip.

Morris went on the mission trip with a church group to teach Bible school to Mexican children. She sang Spanish songs and put on a puppet show for the kids. She also handed out food, soap and medicine to the older members of the community.

Morris has done missionary work since before entering high school. She said it was part of being a Christian.

“I tend to surround myself with people of the same morals, and that’s how I can stay on track with school work and my activities,” Morris said.

That track will take her in the fall to Wichita State University where she will do more missionary and volunteer work.

Morris originally planned to major in music education. But she and her father are fans of the TV show “CSI,” and Morris enrolled in a criminal justice course at school.

“The actual job is nothing like the show, but it still interested me,” she said.

Craig Davis, Ottawa Sheriff, teaches the course that caught Morris’ attention. She is now considering a major in forensic science or criminal justice.

Mark Allen Samsel

Mark Samsel has a knack for picking up things quickly. Whether it is dribbling a basketball or playing a new video game, Samsel masters new abilities with ease.

But the Wellsville High School senior is the first to admit that nothing was ever handed to him.

“In my family you work for what you get. Nothing came really easy,” Samsel said.

The 18-year-old plans to take that work ethic with him to Kansas University — his first choice — or Washburn University, to study law.

A Jayhawk fan to the core, Samsel said his first trip to Allen Fieldhouse had a great impact on him.

“It was really exciting. I thought the Rock Chalk Chant at the end of the game was really cool,” he said. Now, Samsel wants to go back and participate from the student section.

Samsel, son of Robert and LeeAnn Samsel, has racked up honors throughout his high school career as a Coca-Cola Scholar, a Wendy’s High School Heisman State Finalist and a participant in the American Legion Boys State of Kansas.

Samsel said his track coach, Jim Wright, had been his mentor and an inspiration. Last spring, after some members of the track team quit and switched to baseball, Wright stuck by the remaining members of the team and continued to support them, Samsel said.

“He was still encouraging us to do our best even when we weren’t very good at the time,” he said.

Samsel provided the same leadership to younger students in the Wellsville school district by assisting in basketball camps. As a Drug Abuse Resistance Education role model, Samsel knows the effect he has on the younger generation.

“I remember when I was that age looking up to the older kids,” he said.

Now, he’s taking that influence and running with it.

Jenna Wilcox

Jenna Wilcox said she had never won a contest.

But the Lawrence High School senior has won multiple awards for her black and white photography. At the American Royal Youth Photography Competition this year, she received Best in Show for her photograph of children rodeo contestants.

And she is a Journal-World Academic All-Star. Not a winner?

“I guess this does count,” Wilcox said. “I guess I’ve never been extremely lucky in my life.”

While she may not hold the winning lottery ticket, Wilcox is one lucky girl.

Wilcox scored a 31 on the ACT and has never received a B in school. She is a member of the National Honor Society and is a Kansas Honor Scholar.

Wilcox also is gifted athletically. She started playing basketball when she was in first grade.

“I don’t know if you can even call it basketball,” she said. “It was bitty ball.”

She ran track and cross country in high school. She also played volleyball two years and basketball throughout high school.

Last spring break, she and her family went to Key West, Fla., where the whole family decided to try scuba diving. Wilcox got her scuba diving certification and enjoyed what she called a unique family vacation.

This year she plans to go skiing with friends in Colorado.

Wilcox is fortunate enough to find time for community service.

She is a member of Students Teaching About Tobacco, a group of students who choose not to use tobacco. The group gives presentations to elementary schools about the dangers of smoking. Members add personal reasons for why they choose not to smoke.

“I’ve always been taught if you have the time or anything to give, you should give back to the community,” Wilcox said.

She applied to the University of Notre Dame and, with any luck, will be accepted in April. Wilcox is the daughter of Thomas and LuAnn Wilcox.