When senior MarKayla Barnett walks into a room, people tend to notice. She’s small in height but unmistakably strong in presence, with the kind of confidence that comes from knowing exactly who she is and what she stands for. So, when the newly revived Civic Bobcats student organization chose its very first president, it’s no surprise that students elected her.

This is the first year the Civic Bobcats have existed in a long time—long enough that nobody in the current student body remembers the last version of the club. But its purpose is clear: help the school, help the community, and create a space where students feel like their voices matter.

That last part is especially important to MarKayla.

“If you want your voice to be heard and you want to do something about something,” she said, “you should be in it.” She says it with the calm certainty of someone who learned early that being overlooked isn’t the same as being silent—and that leadership means changing that experience for other people.

MarKayla is in her senior year now, but she’s honest about the fact that middle school and early high school weren’t always smooth. She talks openly about being misunderstood when she was younger and getting into a fight in ninth grade—the last time anything like that ever happened. She turned things around after that, and you can hear the pride in her voice when she mentions how much she’s grown. “You change things around,” she said simply, as if flipping a switch toward a better version of yourself is something anyone can do if they decide to.

Today, she’s involved in Educators Rising, FFA, cheerleading, and now the Civic Bobcats. She keeps good grades, reads constantly, and paints a picture of a student who is both focused on the future and rooted in her community.

That future is already beginning to take shape. She’s been accepted to SIU Carbondale and plans to major in zoology. Animals have always been her passion, especially those that are endangered. She imagines herself working at a zoo someday—maybe St. Louis, maybe Atlanta—and she’s already the kind of person who thinks in terms of service, stewardship, and giving back.

But before college, she has one more year at Meridian, and she’s determined to make it count.

The Civic Bobcats, still in their earliest days, are already organizing their first projects. Facilitated by Ms. Green, students will take on school cleanup efforts, help ensure student concerns are heard, and lead both a Thanksgiving and Christmas canned food drive. They’ll place signs around the school and around town, collect donations, and distribute food to local churches that support families in the community.

“It starts today,” she said during the interview, smiling because she knew she would be helping launch something meaningful.

The group also plans to take on school issues that students talk about but often feel powerless to influence. For example, MarKayla said many students want more options at lunch. “Some kids don’t just want milk,” she said. “They want water, juice, things like that.” She’s also heard the girls' basketball team is hoping for new jerseys. These are small things on the surface, but to high school students, feeling heard about day-to-day life matters deeply.

And that’s why MarKayla wanted to lead this organization—not for the title, but for the chance to help people be heard.

In addition to MarKayla as President, there are students serving as Vice President and Secretary. Membership is somewhere between twenty and twenty-five students and climbing. Enough interest, in other words, to become a voice worth listening to.

Outside of her leadership roles, MarKayla is a creative soul. She loves to draw cartoon-style characters, watch animal videos, and read—everything from The Hate U Give to Holes to whatever she picks up next from the Barnes & Noble in Cape Girardeau. English is her favorite subject, especially reading and writing, and she proudly calls herself a “book-book” person, choosing real pages over screens whenever she can.

She talks about her family with affection—her older sister, who also graduated from Meridian and is now studying to be a vet tech, and her plans to come home from her dorm on the weekends once she begins college.

There’s a steadiness to her, a groundedness, that makes her feel like the kind of leader who doesn’t just guide people but invites them in. The kind who listens before speaking. The kind who grows and helps others grow, too.

And maybe that’s why the Civic Bobcats feel like the right fit for her—a new organization, ready for a fresh start, led by someone who understands what it means to rebuild, redirect, and rise.