KU Scholar Athlete of the Month: Alexis Rich

A Question of Time: Alexis Has the Answers

School: West Jessamine High
GRADE: 12 SportS: Volleyball
Academics: Alexis has a 4.3 GPA, scored 30 on the ACT and will have taken 11 A.P. classes by the time she graduates.
Parents: Suzannah & Barry

Here’s a question that not even Alexis Rich, an honor student at West Jessamine High, can answer. How does the 17-year-old star volleyball player squeeze so much into every day?

Consider her accomplishments:

She has a 4.3 GPA, scored 30 on the ACT, and by the time she graduates will have taken 11 A.P. classes.

She’s a National Honor Society member and has been named the school’s top A.P. student in psychology (freshman), world history (sophomore) and biology (junior).

She has been Academic All-State three years running and is active in the school’s DECA marketing club and the Health Occupations Students of America club. She’s a state champion in DECA and has competed in international events in Nashville and Anaheim.

She’s a Student Council member, chair of the student service committee and the senior class treasurer.

An avid reader, she recently read “Wuthering Heights” for fun.

Said her father, Barry, a former offensive lineman at Kentucky: “When she was young we had to take books away from her so she could go to sleep at night.”

Oh, she also plays the piano, attends Bible study once a week, showed cattle in 4-H events and babysits around the neighborhood. (She even chicken sits for neighbors who raise backyard hens.)

How does she do it all? She really loves learning, she’s organized and a skillful time manager.

“She pays attention in class and anytime she has a free moment in school she does homework,” her mother Suzannah said. “She’ll read a textbook cover to cover.”

Said Alexis: “I keep a planner and make checklists. I love checklists. I do love to learn and I’m sad that there isn’t enough time to take all the classes I want to take in high school.”

She has accomplished all this while earning first-team All-State recognition as a junior. A 5-foot-9 setter, Alexis has been team captain for three years and led the Colts last year to their first trip to the volleyball State tournament.

The Colts reached the Elite 8 and Alexis was named to the All-Tournament team.

She was All-Region as a freshman and sophomore, and last year was the Region 12 Player of the Year.

She also plays for the Lexington United club team and has accepted a full scholarship to play Division I volleyball at Fairfield University in Connecticut where she will study business and pre-med.

Sound like too much of a workload for college? Don’t worry. Alexis will find time to make it work.