Senior Ella Pohlen is like a breath of fresh air at Badin High School; a quiet whirl of friendly energy as she heads through the hallways, a good mood always evident in her ready smile.
“Ella rocks!” said Mrs. Gina Helms, Badin’s director of Campus Ministry. “She’s a gem; one of a kind,” added Mrs. Megan Halverson, who coordinates Badin’s Christian Service program.
“It’s been life-changing,” Pohlen said of her Badin experience. “I was really quiet freshman year. If you’d have told me I would be leading retreats and standing up giving speeches as a senior, I couldn’t have imagined it.”
Pohlen stops to chat briefly, en route to lifting with the Badin girls’ volleyball team. She doesn’t have to lift with the team any longer, but she goes anyway, because she wants to.
“Volleyball was awesome. I loved every minute of it. I miss it,” said the talented 5-foot-6 Pohlen, who served 18 straight points in one victory for the district runner-up Rams this past fall. “That really started things for me as a freshman – being on a team, meeting new people.”
Pohlen has become a people-person, heavily involved in service, where she is frequently at the Boys and Girls Club, helping younger students with homework and playing games.
“I love going to the Boys and Girls Club,” Pohlen said. “That really strengthened my idea of becoming a teacher someday.” The Sacred Heart grad from Fairfield will attend Miami University/Hamilton in August and major in Early Childhood Education.
“Ella is incredibly generous with her time and gifts,” Halverson said. “She is so reliable – always willing to say ‘yes’ and step into leadership roles with humility, kindness and grace.”
“She has such integrity and poise,” Helms added. “She is truly respected by her peers. I have so much confidence in what the future holds for her.”
Remembering a King of the Court volleyball fundraiser that happened during her freshman year, Pohlen quickly organized one as a senior, and in less than a week raised more than $800 for Cancer Free Kids.
As the assistant sacristan, she handles announcements and prayer every afternoon at the close of school, and said that has given her the impetus to step up and help distribute communion at Sacred Heart.
“I have really enjoyed the relationships at Badin,” Pohlen said. “Not just with the students but with the faculty as well. It says something about a school when you can walk down the hallway and feel comfortable enough to say hi to everyone you walk past. Even if I’m having a bad day, I can say hi to someone, and it puts a smile on my face.”