Vasquez, Wieseler ExCEL winners

Waseca Public Schools recently announced Lucas Vasquez and Addison Wieseler as winners of the ExCEL Awards for 2023. The ExCEL Award stands for “Excellence in Community, Education, and Leadership” and is awarded to high school juniors who are leaders in their schools and demonstrate a strong commitment to community service while being highly active in school activities. Recipients of these honors are selected by building administration. 

For the ExCEL Award, the selection is based on applications submitted by the juniors for the Minnesota Honor Society. Winning these awards at the school district level also qualifies recipients to be considered at higher levels. 

Vasquez was named a statewide winner of the 2023 ExCEL Award, and will be featured on MSHSL State Tournament broadcasts and during an on-court ceremony during the 2023 State Girls’ Basketball tournament. Both students will be honored at the annual Student and Staff Recognition Ceremony held mid-May.

Vasquez is captain of the soccer team and the speech team, and also participates in track and field, student council, choir, show choir and the male sextet, theater, and the Business Professionals of America. Additionally, he is a member of the Minnesota Honor Society. In past years, he's taken part in law team, but the activity was not organized for the current school year. While doing all of this, he maintains straight As in his classes, saying his parents expect nothing less. “I strive to be getting top marks all the time,” he explained. “They're not perfect, but most of the time I'm completely on it.” Vasquez is the son of David and Katie Vasquez and has three younger brothers. The oldest is ninth-grader Andres Vasquez, followed by sixth-grader Thomas and fifth-grader Mateo. Vasquez lived in the Twin Cities area until after his fourth-grade year when his family moved to Ecuador, where his father's family is from, for about two years before moving to Waseca where Vasquez joined the seventh grade. He says he made his first visit to Ecuador at six months old, when he was baptized there. Regarding the two years he lived there, Vasquez says “It was a great experience. I've learned a lot, and I've seen a lot. It gives you a lot of perspective; when you see different customs and culture, it makes you appreciate the things you have, and also the things you don't have.” After high school, Vasquez hopes to attend a university for an undergraduate degree in political science before attending law school – for which he said it would be great to be able to attend an Ivy League school. For his undergraduate experience, he says if he decides to stay close to home he's interested in St. Thomas University, since he's done soccer camps there and already formed a dialogue with the coaches there. Soccer is very important to Vasquez. It's something he'd like to play professionally if given the opportunity, what he most enjoys in his spare time, and what he says he could talk about endlessly. Regarding the ExCEL Award, he was wary of sounding over-confident as he said, “I wasn't very surprised. A close friend of mine has won it, my girlfriend has won it, and they both have very similar school lifestyles to mine. Along with all the volunteer hours I have, and the prestige I get in my extracurricular activities, I was kind of expecting it.” He added that among the other boys in his grade, he can't think of anyone with more time spent on volunteering and extracurricular activities.

Wieseler participates in soccer, basketball, band, marching band, choir, State Street show choir, Spanish club, science olympiad, math team, Business Professionals of America, and is the Junior Class President on the student council as well as student representative for the school board. She says that student council and the junior school board are excellent ways for her to give back to her community and help people. Addison is the daughter of Pat and Tonya Wieseler; Pat supervises the setup of new HyVee stores and Tonya is a pharmacist. She has an older sister, Emma, who is a freshman at St. Olaf College and a younger brother, Owen, who is in the eighth grade. “I was very happy,” she said about winning the ExCEL Award. “I was proud of myself and I was glad that I was able to be ambitious enough and show how hard I work in the community.” In her free time, Wieseler spends as much time as possible with her family. “With my crazy schedule and their crazy schedules, we don't get enough time together,” she says, “Even sitting down and talking is precious time.” She also greatly enjoys reading. If she had to choose a favorite book, she says it would be To Kill a Mockingbird, but she'll read anything her sister recommends. Wieseler recently took part in the Minnesota Page Program for high school juniors, which allows students to stay a week at the capitol, meet representatives and sit in on committee meetings. “That is the coolest experience I think I've had,” she gushed. “You're with a group of people from different parts of Minnesota who share your interest in politics,” she explained further, saying that often people in daily life are disinterested or annoyed by topics like lawmaking. While Wieseler's ambition leads many to believe she'd be interested in medicine, what she really wants to do is law or non-profit work. She says working on the student council and junior board showed her how much she enjoys public service. “For anyone who wants to be the one who takes the extra mile,” she said before wrapping up, “know you don't have to be the best at everything. You just have to try your best. You don't have to be the smartest, or the best athlete, you just have to be the one who is willing to try the hardest and get stuff done.”