When Kylee Chee was a freshman, she remembers looking up to former LHS student Vivian Podrebarac and realizing how cool it was to be involved.
“She did literally everything, and I was like ‘oh my god, I want to do everything’,” Chee said, now a junior.
She is now living that dream. Consider her routine at each home football game; it’s crazy. In a single night, she’s performing cheer routines, color guard choreography, and clarinet pieces. She may even be memorizing a line or two for her next theater performance if she catches a break.
“It’s really funny,” Chee said. “For parade, I do my clarient, and then I throw my clarinet to the side and grab my flag. And then after pregame, I march off with my flag and throw it to the side and run out and do my tumbling. And then I cheer. Then during halftime, I put my band shirt on and do my flags.”
More importantly, she loves it.
“It’s a little stressful, but I am just really happy,” Chee said.“It’s probably my favorite part of the year.”
She’s risen from the ground up in her activities. In cheer, she entered high school with little experience, yet has become an important leader on the team. She began theater performances in sixth grade, and has played a role in every single musical and play offered since then. She qualified for state choir the same year she joined, in 2022. This was her first year running cross country, which she says was the most out-of-her-comfort-zone activity yet. But she medaled in the last four meets.
Chee, it seems, is unstoppable.
“I want to look back on my high school experience and not have any regrets,” she said. “I want to be able to try and do everything, it just makes me really happy.”
Her peers also notice her drive.
“She brings energy to everything she does,” junior Elise Rathmel said.“In colorguard, she has a super bubbly personality and gets everyone motivated and excited. In student council, she brings a lot of fun ideas and helps us think outside the box more.”
Chee believes being involved is the key to establishing a thriving environment within LHS. Her ambitions as junior class president reflect that belief.
“I want to make the most out of high school for everybody,” she said. Her vision is to create an environment where everyone wants to participate in school dances, spirit weeks, and other student life.
“Those are the things that make up high school,” Chee said. “I want to make it as fun as possible.”
Mike Jones, her band director and student council adviser, observes the impact she has in the classroom and on the field.
“Anytime you can have a person who has a positive attitude and is a leader, it makes things better,” Jones said. “It’s a big room, and she influences more than she probably knows.”
