ARGONIA – It’s graduation season, and Abigail Paxson joined her 11 Argonia High School senior classmates in receiving diplomas on Saturday.
 
Those types of ceremonies are chock full of wisdom for outgoing students, encouraging them to take a bold approach to life, make a difference and not be afraid to try new things.
 
In other words, to chart a course Paxson already favors.
 
“I’m kind of an adrenaline junkie,” said Paxson, the Capitol Federal® True Blue® Student of the Week. “Trying things brings me a lot of joy. If I see something and want to do it, I try to do it if I’m able.”
 
Paxson, the daughter of Jason and Julie Paxson, offered a sample of her unique pursuits in a bio for Wichita television station KWCH’s “Top of the Class” feature. Asked for a fun fact about herself, Paxson stated, “I can do a double backflip off a high dive, and I love to cliff jump.”
 
Paxson also possesses a more contemplative, deliberate side. It was one that served her – and others – well during her time at AHS.
 
A senior class president and president of Argonia’s student council, Paxson was the Kansas Association for Youth recipient of one of 35 annual scholarships offered by KSHSAA and Capitol Federal. She served as an officer in Argonia’s KAY club, the student leadership and service organization directed by KSHSAA.
 
KAY’s promotion of good citizenship through service projects struck a chord with Paxson.
 
“I love helping others,” Paxson said. “It’s called community service, but growing up I never felt like it was that. I just thought that was what you do because my family has always been active in the community and helping families that need help.”
 
That approach is rooted in one of Paxson’s earliest memories – a time when her family needed their community’s assistance.
 
When Paxson was 4, a fire destroyed her family’s Argonia home. Nobody was home at the time, but the structure was destroyed.
 
“I didn’t know how to cope with that,” Paxson said. “I didn’t even know what ‘cope’ meant. But I just felt so much love around the community. Everybody was helping, giving us clothes. There was love behind everything. There was help and people who cared about us.
 
“Growing up, that really stuck with me. I was hit with a real big event real young, so I started seeing the bigger world earlier than I feel a lot of young people do. I just feel like that happens with certain traumas. It’s made me want to instill love and compassion to others because the world is big, life is short.”
 
Paxson attends Argonia Friends Church, which has provided her with opportunities to make an impact within her community and beyond. Two of the last three spring breaks, she traveled to Mexico on mission trips, helping local churches in the communities of Palau and Agujita with repairs and community worship.
 
This school year, she helped Argonia’s KAY club take the lead role in Operation Christmas Child, a global outreach that collects gifts, personal care items and school supplies for children in warring and remote countries during the holiday season. Argonia Friends Church helped the KAY club ship more than 30 shoeboxes filled with items.
 
“We’ve grown up doing that with my grandma,” Paxson said. “I worked with my KAY sponsor to help implement it in the school.”
 
That initiative illustrates a difference in the Paxson who Argonia principal Luke Greenwood saw as an incoming freshman to the one that graduated last weekend.
 
“A big thing is her transformation,” Greenwood said. “Four years ago when she was in junior high coming in here, she was more secluded, more closed door. Then it just started to click for her.
 
“She started doing what she wanted to do instead of trying to fit in and she started to advocate for herself. ‘These are the classes I want to take, this is what I want to do.’”
 

Paxson’s adventurous side was evident last fall when, after three years of playing volleyball, she went out for Argonia-Attica’s co-operative eight-player football team, which Greenwood has coached for several seasons. She saw limited junior varsity action at receiver and linebacker. Her highlights included catching a two-point conversion pass.
 
“Since eighth grade I had wanted to do it,” said Paxson, who also played for Argonia’s state-qualifying basketball team and is wrapping her final season on the Raiders’ track team. She won the South Central Border League triple jump title last week. “I didn’t come out and say it until like my sophomore year.
 
“I remember talking to the principal about it and I was so shy. I got in there, started talking to him and bawling my eyes out. I was like, ‘This is not normal. Am I making the wrong decision?’”
 
After choosing to wait and further discussing it with her father, Paxson decided at the end of her junior year she was going to play football and worked to get stronger in the program’s summer weights program.
 
“Her playing time was limited but she did it all with a smile on her face,” Greenwood said. “She broke her finger but wanted them taped together so she wouldn’t miss any time. Even my Attica coaches took to her and she absorbed everything they would tell her. She’s just been a good kid to have.
 
“Those are just the things that she’ll do. Sometimes an administrator or a KAY sponsor will say we have to pump the brakes here. A we-can’t-do-everything type of thing. But she has definitely been a go-getter the last three years of high school for sure. She left a state contender volleyball team just for a shot to play football because she wanted to experience it.”
 
Paxson will attend Emporia State and major in elementary education. She has served as a lifeguard and worked with young children in Argonia’s recreation program. She also spent time as an elementary school aide this year.
 
“I think part of it comes from helping people,” Paxson said of her desire to teach. “I’ve had to learn how to teach young kids and how to interact with them in some of the things I’ve done in order to make them learn best. There are so many approaches you can take to teaching, and a lot of it in my experiences have been trial and error.
 
“I’ve been an assistant for rec basketball and some other things. Those situations are obviously going to be different from a classroom, but it kind of let me know that I enjoy helping children grow into becoming their own person.”
 
Paxson was a percussionist in band, and added a new activity her final semester when she joined choir. The myriad opportunities are something she cherished about attending a small school.

“I’ve not always been comfortable singing, but I tried it and it turned out to be a really good experience,” Paxson said. “Being able to try things you want to try is a plus. I also feel like a big thing about a place like this is the way you’re able to build relationships. You basically know everything about everybody.
 
“That can be difficult sometimes, but you really get a feeling of a family. And knowing how much all the teachers care about you – they really want to see you improve. Because our numbers are small, the teachers are really able to help. If you struggle, they’re able to make you better and succeed in whatever capacity you want to.”