LIBERTY, Mo. — Next week in Jefferson City, a local high school senior will be in the spotlight at the statewide Speak Hard Youth Conference for her tireless leadership in preventing alcohol and drug abuse among teens. Chiarra Franklin is getting the Outstanding Youth Award from The Missouri Youth Adult Alliance. That adds to the mountain of leadership and community service honors for this week’s Fox 4 Reaching 4 Excellence Young Achiever.
She went to her first basketball camp when she was just three years old. And now after countless hours on the Liberty High School court and many others in the metro area and across the nation, senior Chiarra Franklin is regarded as one of the region’s best players for 2015.
“Basketball you can always get better at and that’s what I strive for in my life is just to always keep improving on myself,” said Chiarra.
For Chiarra, competitive sports, especially her success in championship basketball, has become her strong foundation for amazing success in wide-ranging accomplishments and involvement.
“Basketball is the first thing I was really passionate about,” said Chiarra. “And so that encouraged me to go out and find other things that I’m passionate about.”
With a remarkable work ethic, Chiarra is an academic powerhouse, even in the toughest of courses, like Advanced Placement Chemistry. She could be valedictorian of her senior class and she has a full-tuition scholarship to one of the country’s leading universities for engineering.
“Science and math allows you to problem solve,” said Chiarra. “I actually want to go into the environmental field because, again, helping people. I feel like if I can help the environment that’s helping everybody.”
Problem-solving and helping people is at the heart of Chiarra’s other strong suit — leadership and service.
“I’m the person that likes to see things get done,” said Chiarra. “And so leadership, that’s what you do. You like to see things get done. You help people build. And so you get to see other people grow with you.”
Chiarra is co-president of Liberty High’s Diversity Council, which fosters cultural awareness and acceptance in school and the community. And she’s big in Youth With Vision, a Northland student organization working on preventing drug and substance abuse.
Chiarra also is a strong mentor and role model to help others become leaders. She connects with elementary school students in her basketball team’s Sidekicks project. And she’s on the Liberty High Link Crew that helps freshmen transition effectively into high school.
“She’s able to develop relationships with her peers, with adults, with younger students,” said Liberty High School counselor Scott Gillespie who has been Chiarra’s counselor since her freshman year. “She cares and she’s sincere. It’s not just an act that she’s putting on. She really has the ability to make those relationships and then use those for good things.”
Chiarra leaves everyone in awe at how much she does in so many ways at such a high level and with so much success.
“Looking back at it now, I feel like I should be proud of what I’ve done but the crazy thing is that I’m not,” said Chiarra. “I still want to keep doing more. I still want to keep going. I want to try new things. I want to become a leader of leaders.”
Chiarra and the rest of the Liberty High girls basketball team will play in the state tournament at Mizzou Arena in Columbia, Mo., Friday night. And Chiarra was named first team All-Conference and All-District.
FOX 4 News is Working 4 You to spotlight outstanding young people and their positive accomplishments. In our weekly report called Reaching 4 Excellence we meet young achievers in subjects like academics, the arts, leadership, community service, volunteerism, career exploration, overcoming obstacles and heroism. Watch for Reaching 4 Excellence every Wednesday on FOX 4 News at 9 p.m. and every Thursday on FOX 4 News at 8 a.m. and noon.
