Emily Pottebaum, child of Scott and Amy Pottebaum, is one of November’s Kiwanis Students of the Month.  Emily has a 4.125 GPA and her three favorite classes are AP Calculus, AP Language and Composition, and Physics.  She likes these classes not because they’re challenging, but because they all happen to be topics that she enjoys.

After school, is she involved in Speech and Drama, which have taught her presentation skills along with how to overcome anxiety.  She also tutors kids in math in her spare time which has taught her about leadership and learning styles. On top of that, once a week, Emily is a “Big Sister” in her mother’s classroom.  She also participates in, “Academic Decathlon, which has taught me about… Africa.”

She plans to attend Iowa State and her intended major is Physics,  “with an emphasis on Astronomy, …gotta have that space.”

When asked for advice on how to be successful in school or life, Pottebaum said, “Resilience is one of the most important traits you can have, because there’s gonna be failures and there’s gonna be hard times.  Bad things happen to you, but you have to learn to grow from those–to bounce back and learn from them.”

To her, being Kiwanis Student of the Month means that, “I’m pretty involved, and I work hard in my classes.”  She also said that she was honored to have been chosen.