LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Male High School standout Kalea Alexander is an accomplished musician, but she also hits the right notes in the classroom and in her community.
She says she wants to leave the world better than she found it, and she’s accomplishing that so far. She’s a student ambassador for the Bulldogs, a Kentucky Governor’s Scholar and on pace to earn the U.S. Congressional award, the highest honor Congress can give to youth. The two-year process required over 400 hours of community service.
She’s never missed a day of school at Male and has a 4.1 GPA while working a part-time job at Chick-Fil-A.
But her true pleasure is music. She says she’s been doing it since she was a baby, explaining that. “My mom put me in front of the TV to watch Baby Einstein to play classical music and I was like ‘yeah!’”
She plays in the orchestra, sings in the choir and does musical theater. But despite that love of music, her future lies in another medium. She says she loves telling stories and wants to go into filmmaking so she can share a new perspective, saying, “I feel like there isn’t enough diversity, especially in film, so I would use my platform to not only tell diverse stories but also advocate for equal educational opportunities.
”Both teachers and peers alike have noticed her commitment to achievement. School counselor Phil Johnston says, “She’s a role model who is very humble but probably doesn’t see herself that way, which I think is very cool. If I had to pick a student to talk to an underclassman who was struggling, she would be the person I would pick.”
And what would her message to other students be?
“Impossibility really shouldn’t be a word, cause anything can be possible if you do it and you make it.”
She says she has a goal to keep “raising the standard” and her next chance to do that will come at Western Kentucky University, where she’ll double major in Film and Broadcasting.