Madison smiles for her year book picture. Submitted

BETHEL — Madison Gingras, a sophomore at Telstar High School, has been dancing since she was 3 years old, starting with jazz and then eventually leading into lyrical, musical theater, hip hop, as well as dabbling in tap, ballet, clogging, and acrobatics.

“Hip-hop is upbeat, gives you a lot of adrenaline and energy. In lyrical you put a lot of emotion and power into your dancing,” she says when describing the style of dance set to specific music. “Lyrical can tell a story through the dance, though it might not be easily recognized. Musical theater’s “vibe” is solely based on the song we are using. We tend to use songs that we can do acting parts in so we get that theater part in the dance.”

But dancing is only the start of the number of talents Gingras possesses. Having won the Student of the Month award this October for Sophomores, the Telstar High School and the Bethel Rotary Club state, “This nomination is reflective of the student’s character, demonstration of meeting a social or academic challenge, or performing in a school or community service activity.”

Gingras loves math; however, she’s been taking other classes that have sparked her interest as well, including a college level Intro to Psychology course (though York County Community College), which she took this summer, and this semester, another college course called Intro to Criminal Justice. In the spring she’ll be taking Spanish through YCCC as well.

Regarding the psychology course, she says, “It was not what I expected it to be. I thought it was gonna be totally different. Psychology is really more than just understanding the brain. Psychology is really deep and gets into a lot of topics that I honestly thought had nothing to do with Psych.”

One of her teachers at Telstar has said, ““It is evident that she puts a lot of time and thought into her work.”

She’s also taking a wood technology class with Mr. O’Connor where they make projects out of wood and learn how to make the project using different materials and supplies.

“My first project was a wooden picture frame, but the project I just finished is my favorite. I made a suspended bookshelf that has five shelves that are connected by rope. It came out so cool and I am very happy with the final product,” she says, showing a picture of the hanging bookshelf with each shelf getting smaller and smaller the further it goes up.

When talking about her time spent volunteering with the CPS Halloween parade, she laughs happily at the memories she shares with her younger sister and her friends. She says she was Elmo and one of her friends was the Cookie Monster.