MONTEREY — Having had a chance to travel for medical camps, Monterey High School senior Shelby Morace has learned early that her future is in the Miss-Lou.

The Concordia Parish School District’s High School Student of the Year plans to attend Copiah-Lincoln Community College’s Natchez campus in the fall, with hopes of eventually transferring to Alcorn State University’s School of Nursing, also in Natchez.

“I am a homebody,” she said. “I’ve spent a couple of weeks away before, and I never really enjoyed it.”

Morace said she was hoping to go out senior year with the award.

“I wasn’t too confident I would win, so it was really exciting for me,” she said. “My teachers and my parents have always instilled confidence. They have all been so supportive about helping me reach my goals.”

While Morace would like to see more science funding at Monterey High School, she has enjoyed the small school experience.

“It’s kind of like having a small family outside of my actually family,” said Morace, who is the treasurer for both BETA and 4-H for her school. “I know everyone in my class pretty well.”

With nursing being her career path, AP biology is naturally her favorite subject.

“I love everything about biology,” Morace said. “It’s just the amount of information — there’s always something new to learn. It’s always growing, it’s always changing.”

Morace said her parents, Sharla and Bundy Morace, have been her biggest supporters. Shelby Morace said she likes giving back to her parents by working on the family turtle farm.

“It’s actually really cool,” she said. “My grandparents owned it, and now my parents do. Maybe one day I will inherit it.

“We have ponds with thousands of turtles. We go and collect eggs, and then we bring them back and it’s basically like a giant incubator. We hatch them and sell the baby turtles.”

When she’s not on the farm or studying, Morace said she’s like any other teenage girl.

“I like to hang out with my friends, and we go to the mall to watch movies,” she said. “One of our favorite new hangouts is this place called Steampunk (Coffee Roasters).”

With graduation just around the corner, Morace will be taking classes at Co-Lin soon.“I am a little nervous about college,” she said. “I think by staying close to home it won’t be as much of a culture shock as going to one of the big schools. Those schools are a lot bigger than Monterey High School.”

Once college is over, though, she knows where she wants to be.

“I plan on staying right here in the Natchez community to build my career,” she said. “I just really enjoy being in the community where I grew up.”