photo by: Mike Yoder

Bishop Seabury Academy senior Marie Brockhoff will celebrate her graduation at the school's commencement ceremony May 27.

Marie Brockhoff said she’s never wanted to do just one thing.

Her list of activities — ballet, 4-H, theater, history research, even sewing — certainly emphasizes that point. And while Brockhoff’s desire to learn and connect with people unites them all, they don’t always perfectly align.

“I remember one time when I was with my family working cattle over the weekend, I wound up getting my foot stomped on by a cow, which is not fun,” Brockhoff said. “But then the next day I had to go in to my ballet class and basically explain to my teacher I can’t dance on pointe because my cow stepped on my foot.”

Injuries aside, Brockhoff, who lives with her family on a cattle farm in Linwood, said she’s always liked learning about a lot of different things and getting involved in a variety of activities because it allows her to connect with many different people.

“Things kind of link together in different ways,” Brockhoff said. “I like being able to have a lot of different experiences just because I feel like it helps me be able to connect with the people around me.”

Brockhoff also tends toward variety in school and is interested in studying biology and history in college. And though her academics and extracurricular activities have earned her accolades, Brockhoff said what’s been most important to her was learning.

A panel of judges selected Brockhoff, who attends Bishop Seabury Academy, as the winner of the Journal-World’s 2022 Academic All-Star award, which comes with a $500 scholarship. Judges considered Brockhoff’s academics, extracurricular activities and an essay submission in making their determination.

Sonja Czarnecki, Bishop Seabury dean of students and a member of the school’s history faculty, described Brockhoff as a “real star.” Czarnecki, who said she’s known Brockhoff since middle school, said what stood out was her openness to learn new things, and how she’s turned those activities into service.

“She’s just one of those students who really stands out among the hundreds of students I’ve taught in my career as having this enthusiasm and kind of infectious love for learning,” Czarnecki said. “But even more than that, it’s how Marie connects her love and passion for learning with service to the community.”

Czarnecki said that’s included using her sewing to make more than 100 masks toward the beginning of the pandemic; helping start a book club for middle school students that centers on diverse authors; and using her National History Day project to uncover the complicated past of the depopulated and largely forgotten town of Reno, Kan. Czarnecki said Brockhoff even found a way to teach her fellow students about raising cattle.

“Marie and her family bring their cattle to campus — it’s called Cowtopia — and she shows the kids, ‘Here’s the cows, here’s how we take care of them, here’s some of the things we have to deal with,'” Czarnecki said. “We put a little pen out in west field and the kids come out. It’s unique.”

Brockhoff has also been a school prefect, student senate representative, co-captain of the school forensics team, editor of her school paper, and helps out in the school’s writing lab. She’s been a member of the Lawrence Arts Center School of Dance since 2007, the Happy Helpers 4-H Club since 2011, the Trinity Lutheran Church Youth Group since 2016, and has acted in her school’s theater program. Her hobbies include crochet and sewing and “reading books from various times, places, and genres.”

Brockhoff’s experiences have also helped connect her to some of her favorite school subjects. She said growing up on a cattle farm and walking in the pastures is one of the biggest reasons she loves biology, which lead her to take a wilderness studies class at Seabury. She said she has always loved history, but her research project for the National History Day competition about Reno — which she learned through primary sources had been a fully integrated town right after the Civil War, before its eventual depopulation, potentially due to the resurgence of the KKK and urban migration — gave her a chance to add something to the local historical knowledge.

“I was able to really dig in and look at newspaper articles, census records and photographs, and kind of piece together the story from that,” Brockhoff said. “…It was a really incredible experience, being able to figure something out that not a lot people know about, and then find ways to share that with the community.”

After she graduates from Seabury this month, Brockhoff plans to attend Williams College in Massachusetts and is considering majoring in biology and history. She isn’t yet sure what she wants to pursue as a career, but with all the experiences she’s had, surely she’ll figure that out too.