Boyceville’s Jasmine Windsor and Brendan Sempf named co-valedictorians, Noelle Wheeldon named salutatorian
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By Amber Hayden
BOYCEVILLE — The Boyceville High School class of 2020 has announced their co-valedictorians, Jasmine Windsor and Brendan Sempf, and salutatorian Noelle Wheeldon.
In a tie breaker, Windsor was awarded the academic scholarship, which was announced during the February 12 meeting of the Board of Education.
Students are still unclear of when graduation will be held, but the Board of Education has continued to work on a new date.
Jasmine Windsor
Jasmine Windsor
Jasmine is the daughter of Kelly and Shanon Windsor.
For Windsor her most memorable moment was in 2018 when the Science Olympiad team attended the State Tournament at UW-Milwaukee.
“That was the year my two partners in Experimental Design, Ana Evenson and Caitlyn Pelikan, and I were the State champions in that event,” said Windsor. “This had been something we had been working toward since we were first Experimental Design partners.”
Windsor explained that her three favorite classes while attending Boyceville High School were AP Biology, Band, and Contemporary American History.
AP Biology was her favorite because her teacher was very passionate about the topic, which made learning enjoyable.
“Every activity assigned, especially the Bug Collection Project, was amazing and I learned a lot from them,” said Windsor. “I went to class each day looking forward to what we were learning and knew it would be something I would enjoy.”
She never found a single topic that was boring in the class.
Band allowed Windsor to challenge herself and grow as a musician, and she is enthusiastic about band and the teacher as well. Plus, every year she had an amazing alto saxophone section surrounding her.
As for History, it had never been one of her favorite topics until her Contemporary American History class.
“The depth of which the class studied the 1900s gave me a new appreciation for history,” Windsor explained. “Plus, the teacher had many historical movies and articles that gave us more understanding to what we were learning.”
During her four years of high school, Windsor participated in Band, Track, and Science Olympiad for all four years. She also took part in the Boyceville Water Walk in the spring of 2019, track camp the summer of 2019, and Feed my Starving Children in the fall of 2019.
But out of all of her involvements, Science Olympiad stood out as her favorite activity as she looked forward to every tournament knowing she was surrounded by an amazing team and coaches doing their best under any circumstances.
“Every tournament seemed to have at least one thing go wrong,” said Windsor. “But by the end of the day we all eagerly awaited the rewards of our work with confidence.”
Provided that Windsor will be able to travel come the summer, she plans to visit relatives out of state and continue to spend time with her family before leaving for college.
She plans to attend UW-River Falls and pursue a degree in either Education or Accounting.
Brendan Sempf
Brendan Sempf
Brendan is the son of Tim and Mary Sempf.
While he attended Boyceville, Brendan said his three favorite classes were AP Environmental Science, Civics, and AP Chemistry.
“These classes were my favorite because I always looked forward to going to them,” Sempf explained. “I was not only enjoying these classes, but there was never a day that went by that I did not learn something new.”
But out of the three, AP Environmental Science was Sempf’s favorite class because of his passion for the environment and how humans affect it.
In Sempf’s four years of high school his most memorable moment was when Boyceville was represented at the 2019 WIAA High School State Baseball tournament in Appleton.
“This event meant a lot to me, because it was always my team’s goal to make the tournament,” Sempf said. “I’ll never forget the memories made with my teammates and being able to represent Boyceville down in Appleton.”
During high school, he took part in varsity football from 2016 to 2019, basketball from 2017 to 2019, baseball from 2017 to 2019, quiz bowl from 2019 to 2020, marching band/pep band 2016 to 2020, and National Honor Society from 2018 to 2019.
Sempf said baseball was his favorite activity because it provided him with many memories, and brought him the most success.
“We not only won conference, but we qualified for the state tournament,” stated Sempf. “It was the first time in 19 years for our baseball program.”
Before heading off to college Sempf is planning to hang out with his friends and family while prepping for school in the fall.
He will be attending UW-Madison and will major in Political Science before going to law school.
Noelle Wheeldon
Noelle Wheeldon
Noelle is the daughter of Joe and Laurie Wheeldon.
During her four years of high school Wheeldon said her favorite classes were AP Biology because it was what sparked her passion for learning about life, Advanced English 12 because it was the first time she was excited to be learning about English and a great teacher who inspired her, and Choir because it was her fun down time in the midst of a rigorous course schedule.
Her most memorable event was going to Lakeside Lab for a weekend as it was the first place she saw people learning for the fun of it, and not because a teacher was forcing them to.
Wheeldon took part in Science Olympiad – Varsity team participant, Spanish Club, Drama, Choir – Solo and Ensemble, Regional Competitor, and State Competitor, and Cross Country all four years. Yearbook, Lakeside Lab, Spring and Fall trips, and High School leadership program for three years. Visual Arts Classic, FCCLA, and National Honor Society for two years.
During the summer Wheeldon plans to work at 3M in Menomonie before heading to college at UW-River Falls to double major in Biology and Spanish.
