Throughout her high school career, Branigan McPeters was known for her friendly disposition and love for science.

Graduating with honors from West Limestone High School on May 24, the student’s reputation for being polite and helpful landed her a position as an office aide her senior year.

“I’ve been going to West Limestone since I was in kindergarten, and everyone knows me,” said Branigan, who earned a 4.0 GPA. “I think I was chosen because I am a really hard worker. I always try to do the best job I can and show everyone the respect they deserve.”

As an office aide, McPeters gave up one of her class periods to sort through documents, greet visitors, make deliveries to teachers in their classrooms and check the mail.

“The job involves lots and lots of paperwork,” McPeters said. “But I enjoy it because everyone is so nice and easy to work with.”

As the daughter of Carla McPeters, a high school physics teacher who works at the Alabama Math Science and Technology Initiative at Athens State University, Branigan comes by her passion for science honestly.

Of all the clubs she belonged to at West, Science Club was her favorite. She especially enjoyed helping out with the Weird Science Lab at the elementary school.

“It was great to see their faces light up when we did all the experiments,” Branigan said. “It was like magic to them. They don’t get a lot of science exposure, so the labs showed them that science could be interesting.”

In addition to her involvement in Science and Spanish Club, Future Farmers of America and yearbook, Branigan excelled on the WorkKeys test and earned the Platinum Award. She attended Girls State this year and last, and earned the Presidential Award for maintaining a 90 percent or better in all of her classes.

After spending the summer working in the AMSTI warehouse, she’ll attend Calhoun Community College with the help of a $1,000 Nancy Wade Scholarship. According to Branigan, the scholarship is awarded to students who are family oriented and love Christianity.

She plans to get her bearings and general education requirements at Calhoun.

Branigan said her mom’s belief in her pushed her to work hard in school and to plan for the future.

“She thinks I can do anything I want to do, but she has always encouraged me to do what I’m good at,” Branigan said. “She’s really pushed me to do well in school so that I would have every opportunity to be what I want to be.”

Taking her mom’s advice to heart, Branigan said that once she finishes at Calhoun, she is leaning toward applying her math and science skills to a degree in engineering from the University of Alabama in Huntsville.