“Treat others how you want to be treated,” advised Calen Richardson. “I live by this, and I think it makes a huge difference in how you look at others by putting yourself in their shoes by asking yourself if you would want to be treated that way. It just makes a huge difference to think of others before yourself, and it can make a huge difference on your outlook.”
Calen Richardson was named the Clarke County Distinguished Young Woman for 2023, and she does her best each day to show kindness and compassion to those around her. She has proudly taken part in various volunteer opportunities to help those around her.
“I do a bunch of volunteer work through my school,” informed Calen. “I did a drive with the hurricane this past year in Louisiana and New Orleans. We had a drive to get things like trash bags, food, water, and things people couldn’t get down there because all the grocery stores were down. I also headed up a volunteer drive for the local animal rescue shelter; we got dog food, cat food, and many things that the shelter couldn’t supply for themselves. I’m also currently doing book drive donation bins. I’m taking all those books to the Wesley House to give them books for their nursery and daycare center. They’re also going to have it for the community.”
Along with winning overall for Distinguished Young Woman, Calen also won Self Expression, Fitness, Spirit of DYW, and Most Ad Sales.
She is actively involved in multiple extracurricular activities at Enterprise High School and demonstrates strong leadership skills.
“I’m the class president. Because of Covid, I haven’t been able to do as much as I did my first year, but I was able to head up t-shirt designs and help get those shirts out to our class. When we were getting ready for the homecoming parade, I designed, organized, and helped get the float together,” explained Calen. “I’m also the vice president for the Beta Club, and I’m a leader in FCA. I’ve been a leader in FCA since I was in seventh grade. When the juniors were responsible for helping with prom, I spoke to the classes about getting money for it, helped design a theme, and just helped out with the prom organization.”
She is very athletic in school, and she has assisted Enterprise in receiving some of their championships with cheer.
“I’m a cheerleader, so that keeps me busy during school when it’s cheer season,” stated Calen. “I did cheer whenever I was younger, but I quit for a little while. I never imagined I would start back, but I tried out my sixth grade year to be on the team my seventh grade year, and I fell in love with it. I’ve cheered ever since from seventh grade to now, my senior year. I absolutely love it. I think cheer is so much fun, and it gives me a good resource of exercise. It has taught me so many things, like responsibility and time management, and it’s just been really great for me. I’ve personally won the championship with the team three times. When I won it, that third time, it was our fifth year in a row. Also, my eighth grade year, we won third in the nation at nationals. We went to Disney World and got to skip school and go and compete. For our very first time being there, third in the nation is amazing.”
Cheer isn’t the only physical activity that Calen enjoys. She also enjoys running and has some great memories with her father because of it.
“I love to run. That is such a good stress reliever for me,” expressed Calen. “Whenever I was younger, I used to run with my dad all the time. We would run races all the time; we would go and run consistently. I think that that is where my love of running came from. He would teach me the best ways to run and excel in it. He would push me to be the best that I can in that area. We would run races all the time and just go and do little races in Enterprise and Meridian. I started out just doing one mile because I was very young, and it was hard for me to do the 5k. Once I got older, I would run the 5k.”
With it being her senior year, she is focused on what she plans to do with her future. She has great plans for what she would like to do once she graduates and has a heart to make a positive impact on children in the future.
“I’m looking to be an education major one day. Education is very important to me,” proclaimed Calen. “I would like to teach somewhere around the second grade area. My mama was a first grade teacher for 20 years, and I always helped in her classroom. I have a lot of experience with that age group and love first grade, but I really think I would enjoy teaching second grade as that next level up. I just love little kids. I’d like to go straight to Mississippi State and get my Master’s Degree one day.”
She even has plans to try and bring something to the elementary level that is typically only observed in the middle school and high school levels, but she knows how much it could mean to elementary kids to have the same opportunity.
“I would love to try to maybe get involved through the school’s FCA because I’ve always been involved in FCA,” explained Calen. “I’d love to help out with FCA once I become a teacher. I think that I would like to do that being in the elementary because a lot of FCA just focuses on the high school and middle school. I think that it would be nice to try to do something with that for the elementary. Whenever I was in upper elementary, I remember being jealous of the older kids for having that FCA to go to. I tried to start something up, but since there wasn’t anything hard established already it was hard to get it going. I’d like to be that resource for kids like me who wanted to get it started but had no way to get it started. I think it would be great if I could help start that up. That is one of my biggest things that I want to go into teaching for: being able to shape young minds. I don’t just want to teach them from an education standpoint, but I want to be the teacher they can go to and get advice and can help lead them outside of the classroom.”
With her determination, Calen is sure to reach all the goals she has set for herself. She will continue to brighten others’ day with a joyful smile and kind word, and she is sure to do fantastic at the state Distinguished Young Woman competition and make Clarke County proud.
If you would like to nominate someone for Person of the Week, contact Brittney Mangum at 601-776-3726.
