Boos' leadership skills extend beyond work on newspaper
Fine Arts Student of the Week
If you had to describe Danielle Boos with a single word, the word "leader" would come to mind.
Consider this: The 18-year-old senior guides the Fifth Street Journal staff members as the newspaper's features and entertainment editor, a role that has earned a nomination as Fine Arts Student of the Week.
She also spreads her leadership wings as first chair in the bass clarinet section of the Symphonic Band, and keeps the Marching Band on course as captain of the 18-member Flag Corps.
DANIELLE BOOS
Art focus: journalism
Art activities: Fifth Street Journal, Speech Team, Symphonic Band, Flag Corps captain
Year: senior
Age: 18
GPA: 3.50
Favorite subjects: AP composition
Most memorable fine arts achievement: front page story on Jim Hunt, retiring principal
Artist most admired: doesn't have one
Favorite movie: "The Matrix"
Favorite TV program: "Recess"
Future plans: elementary school teacher
Parents: Jim and Sally Boos, Brainerd
And Boos -- known for her "gift to gab" -- anchors the school's speech team, winning a ribbon or two in the humor category at this year's head-to-head competitions with other schools.
"Danielle is a people person for a position that emphasizes getting to know about other people," said Dave LaShomb, Fifth Street Journal adviser who nominated Boos for the fine arts award.
"She can discover more about others through her interviewing techniques and has a gift to gab that puts others at ease," he said.
Boos joined the Fifth Street staff as a junior, contributing numerous bylined stories as a news and features reporter.
Her story list includes a profile of former high school track star Aron Stumvol and another on a man who grew up in a house that was torn down to make room for the school's athletic fields.
Elevated to features and entertainment sections editor this year, Boos assigns stories to staff writers and handles many of the newspaper's layout and design decisions, while contributing stories and editorials for each edition, she said this week in an interview.
"It's more satisfying to lead than to follow," she said, "because when you lead, you can change how things are done. I'm a good leader because people listen to me when I ask them to do things and the staff knows they can rely on me.
"I like the interaction with the staff the most," she said about her leadership role.
As a reporter and editor, Boos has discovered that she prefers creative and features writing over news reporting, she said.
"I've realized that I like to write but I don't like the time constraints of the newspaper," she said. "I like to write freely and creatively, which is why I'm into features. With news, you have to be too straightforward."
Boos said she hopes to one day complete a novel, but, in the meantime, will pursue a career as an elementary school teacher, in keeping with a family tradition.
Her mother, Sally, is a special education teacher at Mississippi Horizons and her dad, Jim, is the technology coordinator in the Pequot Lakes School District.