Erath Middle’s LaShare named Vermilion Student of the Year

ERATH — Kelbi LaShare knows the feeling.
LaShare, 13, an eighth-grader at Erath Middle School, won the Vermilion Parish Elementary Student of the Year while at Dozier Elementary in 2012.
She recently added the 2016 Vermilion Parish Middle School Student of the Year. The feeling is still there.
“It’s amazing,” LaShare said. “It’s unexpected.”
She went into the interview process for top student in the parish with a good feeling, just not one of overconfidence.
“I was hoping that I had a chance,” LaShare said. “I worked so hard to get where I am.
“I knew I was going up against some amazing people and great students from the other schools.”
Knowing who she was going against made winning all the better.
“I don’t think I would have been disappointed if I didn’t win,” LaShare said. “I know Vermilion Parish has so many great students and we all worked hard to get where we are. I would not have been sad because I did win in fifth grade and that was already enough of an honor.
“This is just a great honor.”
This time around, LaShare is sharing the award spotlight with a special person. Her mother, Joni Milliman Hebert, a teacher at Erath Middle, is the Vermilion Parish Middle School Teacher of the Year for 2015-2016.
“That is cool,” LaShare said with a big smile.
The mother has definitely had an impact on what the daughter has become.
“She is such an inspiration,” LaShare said. “She was a single mother until I was seven. She is married now. She’s always been my inspiration. Even though she was by herself, she still gave me everything I needed. She let me do dancing, basketball, cheerleading, all these activities, even though money was tight because we were by ourselves.
“It made me a better person.”
The person LaShare has become is certainly an active one. She is a member of the cheerleading team, a member of 4-H and an active member of Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church in Erath.
LaShare is also the president of the Erath Middle Beta Club team. She took that a step further last year when she became the Jr. Beta President for the state. As out-going president, she will give a speech next week during the state Jr. Beta Convention in Lafayette.
“I will be speaking in front of thousands of people,” LaShare said. “I am not that nervous because I am more nervous to talk in front of people I know.”
LaShare is not a stranger to the lights and stage, anyway. She has worked in a number of community plays in Abbeville, Lafayette and New Iberia.
“I love doing that,” LaShare said. “I have been in a lot of plays. It’s an amazing experience. You make new friends, many I still talk to today.
“It’s really, really fun and I love it.”
That passion is not going away, at least not any time soon.
“I want to do it as long as I can,” LaShare said. “If it gets me somewhere in life, I would like that.”
If not, LaShare has other plans for her professional future.
“I would like to be a dental hygienist,” LaShare said.
She recently did a job-shadowing exercise at a dentist’s office.
“I passed out,” LaShare said with a laugh. “They were doing a surgery on someone. I think it’s because I didn’t eat that morning and I usually eat breakfast. I don’t know, I just passed out.”
That will no deter her.
“Not at all,” LaShare said. “I still want to be a dental hygienist. I talked to a dental hygienist and she told me the first surgery she saw, she got a little queasy, too.
“I will be ready for it when that time comes.”
She has an entire high-school career before she has to worry about that. She is ready for the next four years. She also taking the time to enjoy the present.
“We did our scheduling for high school last week,” she said excitedly. “I am also enjoying being where I am and will enjoy the rest of this year.”