Shoreline high school student overachieves despite parents’ cancer battles

Shorecrest High School teacher Molly Forry has met plenty of impressive students during her career. But few stand out like Senior Sophie Knudson. And just as amazing as her accomplishments is how she has overcome heartbreaking tragedy that’s stricken her family.

“Sophie is simply one of the most extraordinary students that I have had the honor of knowing in my 30-plus years in education,” Forry says.

When it comes to Sophie’s accomplishments, it’s tough to know where to begin. She’s carried a perfect 4.0 grade point average since 7th grade, taking honors and advanced placement courses.

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“As a sophomore in honors biology, Sophie researched and created a film on Alzheimer’s disease that later won 1st place in her category at the BioExpo where she competed with students from Washington and Oregon,” Forry says.

That alone could overwhelm many kids. But not Sophie. She’s active in school leadership, serving as a junior class senator and senior class coordinator. And she continues participating in Girl Scouts, where she was the Washington state delegate to the Girls’ World Forum. She is also working towards the Gold Award, the female equivalent of an Eagle Scout.

But that’s just the half of it. Sophie is a skilled athlete, playing softball for a select team and Shorecrest’s varsity team, which recently competed in the state finals. And she plays saxophone in both band and marching band.

As if that wasn’t enough, Sophie also volunteers regularly at a local non-profit, and organized a 5K walk/run in Shoreline to raise money for mosquito nets to help eradicate malaria for families in Kenya.

“She exceeded her goal of 150 by raising money for 650 nets,” Forry says.

What’s perhaps most stunning about Sophie’s drive and accomplishments is the fact that she’s done all of that while her parents both battled aggressive forms of cancer. Sophie’s mom has fought breast cancer for over a decade and faced numerous surgeries and hospitalizations. Her dad died last fall after a long fight with brain cancer. All the while Sophie and her younger sister had to pick up much of the slack.

“It was really hard on us for awhile, it still is pretty hard,” Sophie admits.

But she has not only endured, she continues to excel.

“I feel like because of everything else going on in my life, that’s kind of motivated me,” Sophie says. “I told my counselor one time there’s so many things that are up in the air and out of my control that my grades and my academics are something that I can control.”

Sophie credits her parents for her drive, saying they always pushed her even when they were dealing with their own health issues.

“My parents definitely have been go-getters themselves. They never let their cancer get in the way,” she says. “My dad always made sure we had something to do and my mom, despite her cancer, was always involved in PTA at the elementary school and just made sure that we were doing stuff, normal kid stuff.”

It’s hard to believe Sophie has any time for normal kid stuff.

“You definitely have to make time for it, but I get to hang out with my friends and I’m in marching band with some of my friends, so we go on trips and do that type of stuff. I went to Ireland my sophomore year with my band, so I get to do some really cool stuff with my friends that I probably wouldn’t have if I wasn’t so involved,” she says.

But Sophie realizes the time is coming soon where she’ll have to leave both her friends and her mom and sister behind and head off to college.

“I haven’t heard back from all of my colleges yet, but I really hope to go to Yale and I really want to do a global health program there. I guess my kind of dream idea is to do something like Doctors Without Borders and go travel,” she says.

Wherever she goes, her parents will always be in her heart. Sophie says she always thinks of her dad, and the times they had together before he died.

“When we knew that my dad was getting really sick we didn’t have a whole of time to like just hang out and do stuff but I would just make time,” she says. “We got to make some cool memories that I’m definitely glad that happened. So I think if you can just make memories happen, then you’re going to have a lot to remember and be happy about.”

Since this story originally aired, Sophie and her fellow Lake Forest Park Youth Council members successfully raised enough money to send 303 insecticide treated mosquito nets to fight malaria through their 5K event in April. One week earlier, Sophie’s mother, Jodi, lost her battle with breast cancer, but was proud to hear that Sophie will begin classes at the University of Washington in the Honors Program this fall.

KIRO Radio 97.3 FM and Comprehensive Wealth Management are proud to select Sophie Knudson as the Standout Student of the month.

Sophie is just one of nine students who will be selected for a $1,000 scholarship. One of the recipients will also receive a $10,000 grand prize scholarship.