A petite young woman walks quietly onto stage. She offers a shy smile as she accepts the microphone, takes a deep breath, and sings. Kimball Senior Katherine Ganskow sings, with a voice that seems larger than herself.

Ganskow travelled this summer to Europe with the Nebraska Honor Choir. She spent May 28 through June 7 touring the castles and cathedrals of Austria, Hungary, Italy, and the Czech Republic. Her favorite was probably Austria although she said that she had fun everywhere she went.

“They have such a different lifestyle over there,” Ganskow said when asked about the differences she noticed.

The choir had concerts scheduled, but they didn’t stop there.

Ganskow said that the entire group would just stop and sing randomly where ever they happened to be. According to Ganskow, Nebraska’s Honor Choir wasn’t the only one to do this either.

“It was great! We would just stop and sing,” Ganskow said, adding,”Mixing with others from across the globe was a lot of fun too. It didn’t matter if we couldn’t understand each other, we found ways to communicate.”

Ganskow raised the funds needed for this trip herself, working hard for an opportunity she may not get again. When asked if she would participate again next year, Ganskow replied that she would love to, but raising that kind of money again was not an option. At one point, Ganskow held down three jobs to raise money.

Besides participating in the Nebraska Honor Choir, Ganskow has much more going on.

She is a full time student at Kimball Jr./Sr. High School maintaining a 4.0 grade point average. She is in FFA, and last year was the local chapter’s secretary. She was recently selected for the National FFA Honor Chorus and will be attending that Oct. 16-24 in Indianapolis.

Ganskow is also president of the local STAND group, is in the National Honor Society, and the National Society of High School Scholars and is considering a math club as well. Katherine is involved in choir, show choir, jazz band, and just recently dropped band, though she said she is willing to help them out at events such as homecoming if they need her. They will have to give her plenty of notice though, because recently she started a second job. That’s right, Katherine works two jobs while staying as active in school as possible.

Just one month after her return from Europe, Katherine was in Lincoln studying at the UNL campus under Dr. Glen Ledder. This study was for RUTE, Research for Undergraduates in Theoretical Ecology. Katherine was asked to attend based on her NWEA math score and while there she used advanced math in her research including college level calculus and algebra.

Many seniors spend a lot of time looking at colleges and Katherine is no exception. Currently she has more than 60 schools in contact with her. So many so, that she developed a spreadsheet to keep all the information straight. Katherine plans on a double major in music education and math education. While she is keeping her options open, she is leaning toward University of Wyoming. Katherine hopes to teach music, concentrating on vocals. But she is more than able to teach band as well, since she currently plays the clarinet, piano, guitar, and saxophone.

Katherine Ganskow is in the running for the Kimball High School valedictorian for the 2010-2011 school year, and she says this year it is a tough choice. According to Katherine there are six students that maintain the required 4.0 grade point average, and it may come down to quarterly averages or even a vote. However the valedictorian is chosen, and regardless of who that may be, Katherine is certainly one of the deserving students in Kimball.