Colorado Department of Education: Graduate in the heartland got to work when COVID hit

23 Apr Colorado Department of Education: Graduate in the heartland got to work when COVID hit

By CDE Staff
Colorado Department of Education

Sophie Russell. Photo courtesy of the Colorado Department of Education.

Sophie Russell is the type of person who when presented with a challenge just knuckles down and starts working harder.

For example, everything was humming along smoothly in the first part of 2020 in her last year at Swink High School, based in a tiny rural ranching town in southeastern Colorado.

Sophie was in 4H and Future Business Leaders of America and taking college-credit classes at Otero Junior College. She had won the prestigious Boettcher Foundation Scholarship that would provide her with a full-ride to Colorado State University in the fall. Then the pandemic hit.