St. John School's Isabella LoBue named Diocese of Baton Rouge's Middle School Student of the Year

Isabella LoBue, a 13-year-old eighth grader at St. John’s School, was awarded the honor of Middle School Student of the Year by the Diocese of Baton Rouge.

An outstanding scholar, Isabella has attended St. John since pre-kindergarten and currently carries a 4.17 grade point average. The above-perfect GPA is due to her enrollment in an algebra honors class.

“I think it’s great,” she said when asked what she thought of being named a Student of the Year. “It shows that hard work pays off.”

Isabella said she believes part of the reason she received the honor is because of what she does outside school hours.

“I’m involved in a lot of activities outside of school,” she said. “I volunteer for the book bus that goes around in the summer to the neighborhoods so that children can pick out what books they want to read.”

The honor student at St. John also visits the residents of the area’s nursing homes with her mother, Gina LoBue, the principal at Plaquemine High School.

And while most children her age are still aimlessly drifting in regard to their future, Isabella’s maturity shows in her plans for her own future.

“If I keep my grades up, I’m going to try to go to an Ivy League school or one like Duke University,” she said. “I want to go to a college where the academic standards are high. And then there’s always LSU.”

Isabella said her favorite subject so far is history, “because of the way you can teach it as a story. I like stories and I like something that happens can always be told as a story.”

Not only has this remarkable young lady decided on what type of college she wants to attend, she’s already decided on a career in law.

“Law has always been my dream,” she said, continuing by saying she wants to either be a defense attorney or a JAG (judge advocate general, a military attorney),” Isabella said, an obvious tribute to the many men in her family who have been in the military or are still.

The include her great, great grandfather, both grandfathers, two uncles and a cousin who is currently in the U.S. Air Force.

“I’m attracted to the law because it’s how everybody gets justice,” Isabella said. "Justice is everything. We all deserve it, without exception.”

Her parents, Gina and Jarid LoBue, said, “We are obviously so very proud of her,” but have always known she’d do well at anything she attempted.

“From the time her personality started to show, we’ve always said she is truly an individual,” Gina said. “Her tastes in music, movies, books, art and the like are very ‘old soul’ and she is quite a comedian.”

“We deemed her ‘Queen of the Comeback’ many years ago and it just stuck,” she continued. “As parents, it is a blessing to see both of our girls (Isabella has an older sister, Sarah Grace) become their own unique individual and I am thankful they have had the stability of home life and community to do that.”

“There’s no greater feeling than watching your child become her own person and I’m thankful to live in a community that has allowed her to do that without being in somebody’s shadow, whether it was mine, Jarid’s or Sarah Grace’s,” she continued. “She truly has a passion to make the world a better place and a drive to be the best she can be at whatever she does.”

“The genuine excitement people have shown her from the whole community makes Plaquemine the great place it is,” Gina said.

Isabella has also made quite an impression on her principal, Cherie Schlatre.

“Not often do you meet a young person so comfortable in their own skin, confident in who she is and leading others to do good through such a positive example,” she said.

“We at St. John School are beyond proud of Isabella and can’t wait to see what the next four years hold for her,” Schlatre said.