Golden Apple: Laporte’s Wyatt Lahr Joins Siblings in Becoming Valedictorian

One of the proudest moments a family has is seeing a child graduate from high school. Seeing that child as the valedictorian raises the amount of pride. Well, how about four children as valedictorians?

At Laporte Public School, the Lahr siblings have left a legacy of success over the last six years. Richie, Lacey, Harley, and now Wyatt Lahr were honored as the valedictorians of their respective high school classes. Trying to complete the quartet this year was important for Wyatt.

“I just thought it was a really neat chance and I really wanted to take it seriously and do my best this year,” explained Wyatt. “And I believe I’ve done that.”

As you can imagine, the Lahr family is extremely proud of the baby of the family.

“We’re very proud of him, said older sibling Lacey, valedictorian of the class of 2021. “He’s worked really hard and we’ve kind of like, when Harley graduated valedictorian, we kind of gave [Wyatt] like, ‘Hey, now it’s your turn. You’ve got to keep this up.’ And we were, like, kidding, but we also know that he’s a very – he’s a very intelligent young man.”

The pressure to be named valedictorian of his class wasn’t put on Wyatt specifically, but rather, it followed from the standards set by all of the Lahr siblings to continue to work hard every day. From there, the rest would come naturally.

“I mean, in my freshman and sophomore year, I didn’t really – I wasn’t really thinking about valedictorian,” stated Wyatt. “I was thinking about doing my best and working hard and getting good grades. But then junior year came, and I started to think more about it and I’m like, ‘Wow, this is really something I can do.’ So yeah, I just kept my nose down and kept working.”

So what’s next for the young Wyatt?

“I want to do something like natural resources or forestry or wildlife biology maybe, something in that area,” he offered. “I want to work either with the DNR or the Minnesota Forestry.”

After spending countless hours growing up learning about the wonders that the nature of Minnesota offers, preserving that future is important for him.

“I want to make sure that future generations get to experience the outdoors like I did when I was a kid, so that they can enjoy the wonder of it.”

Laporte Public School’s graduation day is on May 24.