This is the last of a series of 20 profiles of The Gazette's Best and Brightest Class of 2018. Colorado Springs Early Colleges junior Yulia Shtanko will not only graduate high school a year ea…

Ria Paradkar has been busy. The senior from Discovery Canyon Campus is a straight-A student, with a grade point average just shy of 4.8. Paradkar is a member of the National Honor Society, has…

This is another in the series of 20 profiles of The Gazette's Best and Brightest Class of 2018. Last year, when a former childhood friend Sam Laib died in an auto accident, Austin Spafford rec…

The definition of success changed for Isabel Harris in 2014 as pressure and anxiety forced a new perspective - shifting from unrelenting personal achievement to service and sacrifice. That doe…

When Hadeel Khammash arrived at an orphanage and camp in Jordan where refugees lived in painful limbo, she wondered if she could do the aid work. She cried over the heartbreak she encountered.…

Pine Creek High School senior Kennedy Caldwell personifies grit. Confined to a wheelchair at the age of 10, Caldwell uses her Spinal Muscular Atrophy diagnosis as motivation to excel in every …

This is another in the series of 20 profiles of The Gazette's Best and Brightest Class of 2018. Air Academy High School senior Carter Rodny cares deeply about helping others. "For many years, …

This is another in the series of 20 profiles of The Gazette's Best and Brightest Class of 2018. The positive influence of her kindergarten teacher is something Alexis Harris has carried throug…

This is another in the series of 20 profiles of The Gazette's Best and Brightest Class of 2018. Pine Creek High School senior Lindsay Mase learned to rely on herself at an early age, out of ne…

This is another in the series of 20 profiles of The Gazette's Best and Brightest Class of 2018. Kaige Jones is a self-made man. The Mitchell High School senior has three goals - before punchin…

Gracie Packard is drawn to stars, not movie idols or even those in the night sky, but the small gold sticky ones typically given to children to acknowledge work well done. There's nothing juve…

Pine Creek High School senior Jack Harrington has a zest for life, delving deeply into everything from learning to play the bagpipes and attending flight school to playing varsity lacrosse. "I…

Palmer Ridge High School senior Holly Young used a love for music, close family ties and her natural knack for organizing to overcome mental health struggles, eventually using her experience t…

This is the seventh of 20 profiles of The Gazette's Best and Brightest Class of 2018. A year ago, Jalen Criss wondered if he would live to graduate from high school. Criss was brutally attacke…

This is the sixth of 20 profiles of The Gazette's Best and Brightest Class of 2018. If music is the universal language, Isabella "Izzy" Fincher is a master linguist. She started playing piano …

Carolanne Walls was drowning in junior year expectations to get excellent grades, ace the standardized tests, win scholarships, find a college. Her high school days also were crammed with extr…

This is the fourth of 20 profiles of The Gazette's Best and Brightest Class of 2018. Paige Langum has attended 12 schools in eight states; her tenure at Air Academy High School is one of only …

Rupa Duggirala, a Rampart High School senior, has always been an avid reader. She says that when she picks up a favorite adventure novel or Indian mythology tale the real world disappears as s…

Palmer High School Senior Summer Wilson loves to read and write poetry, fiction and songs. One of her favorite books is "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls. "That book resonated with me inte…

It was in grade school when Morgan Sibley, now a senior at Liberty High School, first met a child with special needs. She was a student in her class and Sibley enjoyed being friends with her b…

Jessica Shand first picked up the flute in fourth grade because she wanted to be a part of the ensemble. She thought it looked challenging and had the most keys. The first couple of weeks she …

This is the nineteenth of 20 profiles of The Gazette's Best and Brightest Class of 2017. A trip to India last summer sparked a passion in Isabella Nuñez that she shared with her whole school. …

In sixth grade, Sara Khammash remembers friends of her family who used to live in Colorado Springs telling her stories about being doctors. She was very interested. "You know what, I want to b…

This is the seventeenth of 20 profiles of The Gazette's Best and Brightest Class of 2017. For years, Brenna "Bee" Franklin lived with anxiety, but last year it overtook her life. "I worried ab…

Varsha Selvam of Pine Creek High School knows what it's like to be on the outside looking in, but she also knows how to embrace the very culture that set her apart. Her parents moved to Colora…