MHS senior Emma DeBoer is a leader not only in the fine arts department, but also as a cheerleader. Emma has played the alto saxophone for the MHS concert, jazz, and pep bands all through her high school career. She is an alto sax section leader for the bands and also serves as a color guard captain.
“Emma helps during daily attendance taking,” says Milbank’s band director, Susan Karels. “And she will be featured in the upcoming pops concert with an alto sax solo in the jazz band version of Don’t Stop Believin.”
Emma also sings as an alto with the MHS choir and chamber singers. She serves as a section leader for the large group ensemble and was selected as Milbank’s alto representative to the 2021 All-State Chorus.
“Emma has performed solos at concerts but she also has prepared and performed vocal solos at our Region III contests over the years and received superior ratings,” said MHS choir director Miriam Schwenn. “I’m always impressed with Emma’s ability to communicate the style of her vocal solos to an audience and she has such an upbeat personality that helps tremendously as a section leader.”
Emma adds, “I’m an open book. I show my true colors all the time. I am a genuinely nice person who cares about people, but I am also genuinely weird and I’m not afraid to show who I am. I always try to be there
for my friends as much as I can be and always try to see the best in people.”
In addition to band, color guard, and choir, Emma is involved in theatre, Core Kinetics dance, youth group, swim team, and is the student body secretary. Her favorite activity is being a football cheerleader
for the Bulldogs.
“I really love cheer and am going to miss it a lot,” she expressed. “The team is my second family and is so much fun, I just don’t want it to end.”
Emma made the cheer team as a freshman, the first freshman to be placed on the football cheer team in the last four years. “I always had my sister, Kerissa, pushing me to be a cheerleader and to try out my
freshman year. I am so glad she did. Now I do all I can to help other freshman get the confidence they need to try out too.”
Stunting is the best part of cheer, according to Emma. “Having someone trust you so much that you can throw them in the air and they know you will catch them, that trust formed is so fun.” Emma also expressed that the intensity of cheering up on a box and being at the same eye level as the crowd is also a thrill. “Being a Bulldog, I can show the pride that I have in where I come from and where I grew up. It’s a chance to show that this school and this team raised me and have made me who I am today.”
When Emma is not singing, playing her sax, twirling around flags, or cheering, she can be found spending time with her friends in the great outdoors, watching history-type television or Netflix shows,
painting, or going on adventures.
Emma hopes to attend South Dakota State University in Brookings to major in history with a specialty in secondary education. She plans to become a history teacher at the middle or high school level. “I also may
try out for the cheer team at SDSU as well. They cheer year round and travel with the teams, which would be so much fun.”
Emma is the daughter of Craig and Allison DeBoer.
Staff
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