FORT LEAVENWORTH, Kansas — Leavenworth (Kansas) High School senior Elisabeth Howell is racking up an impressive list of accomplishments.
• Named Ultimate Raider at JROTC Raider Nationals and offered a four-year scholarship.
• Has the highest grade-point average in her class.
• Chosen as editor in chief of Bloom, an online military teen platform.
• Has about a 20,000-word head start writing a novel before her senior year creative writing class even begins.
• Is a state-ranked swimmer who is within less than half a second of beating two long-standing records.
• As a lifeguard on post, saved a young girl from drowning this summer.
• Earned the highest score possible on the ACT standardized assessment test.
Achieving balance
Elisabeth’s parents, Col. Kristopher Howell, deputy commander of Mission Command Training Program, and Julie Howell, have observed her methods for success and balance, and offered insight as to how she can juggle and excel at so many activities.
“Liz does not procrastinate, and she takes long-term, deliberate approaches to all of her commitments/projects. She is very disciplined and habitually engages in little bits of her requirements without letting tasks build up,” Kristopher said. “When she tries to overcommit, she does listen to guidance from us on when we think she'll reach a limit.”
Elisabeth’s interests are varied and demanding, but if given the luxury of a free hour, she said she would find something to do.
“She does not like being sedentary,” Kristopher said. “She likes being mentally stimulated and physically engaged. This helps her bounce between all the different elements of her life.”
He said Elisabeth finds joy in the ways she shares her talents.
“She loves playing piano in the chapel worship team because that is her way of giving back to worship. She performs hard and trains for JROTC Raiders because she feels she owes that to her team and the program. She finds joy in giving the best to school and others because she feels those on the other side (teachers, leaders, coaches) deserve the compliment to their efforts,” he said. “Additionally, as someone strong in her faith, failing to give her best is not a failure against others, but rather a failure against her God-given talents and purpose. She does not dwell so much on the challenges of what she does, but she loves the opportunities of what she does — travel, meeting others, growing and laughing together. The rewards are not only medals, but they are also the bonds and shared experiences with her peers and friends.”
Top ACT score
Elisabeth took the ACT curriculum-based achievement exam as a junior in February, and she found out over Spring Break that she received the highest possible English-mathematics-reading-science composite score of 36. She excitedly told her swim coach, family members and a few friends, but waited to share the news with others until ACT sent out a press release about her achievement earlier this month.
“About one-quarter of 1 percent of students who take the ACT earn a top score,” according to the ACT press release. That equates to only 3,041 who scored a 36 out of the 1.37 million students who took the test last year. The exam tests the knowledge students should acquire during high school, and the results are used by colleges and universities to help make decisions about admissions and scholarships.
Rebecca Hollister, a fellow military brat who scored a 36 on her ACT in 2016, is the only other LHS student to do so, but Elisabeth’s twin sister, Alexandrea, nearly achieved that perfect score, too.
“Alex earned a 34 on her ACT, and the two are head-to-head on class standing, which sometimes leaves Alex feeling a bit in the shadows despite her achievements. Alex and Liz are supportive of each other, and Alex is very protective of Liz — Alex is the ‘big sister,’” Kristopher said. “The girls are close but also very different. Alexandrea is also a very high achiever, but her world is a little less diverse than Liz's world. Liz is more broadly talented in the liberal arts, whereas Alex is more progressively focused on STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) and has an amazing capacity to read, reason and recall. Alex desires the outcomes of hard work more than the journey. Liz enjoys the journey as much as the outcome.”
Elisabeth said she is considering a degree in architecture, a field that would allow her to use both creative and mathematical skills. She said she and her sister, who is probably going to study engineering, might be roommates if they choose the same college.
ACT study tips
Elisabeth said she spent about four hours studying for the ACT and took advantage of the online learning platform Methodize, which is available for free through her school. The study aide offers test preparation and practice exams.
“It's awesome. It has courses planned out for every single week — it has a lesson for English, a lesson for reading, a lesson for science, a lesson for math. That's how I learned some of the tips and tricks I utilized.”
She said math and English classes with great teachers also helped prepare her for the ACT, listing her advanced placement classes and instructors for calculus and English Language and Composition as particularly helpful. She said Methodize offered tips for helping eliminate wrong or duplicate answers to get the right answer, and she said the ability to read and understand graphs was more helpful on the test than an abundance of science knowledge.
“The science portion is the weirdest portion because, honestly, you need to know very little science. I got every single question in the science portion correct, I didn't miss a single one, and I didn't take any science last year. I took biology as a freshman, chemistry as a sophomore.”
Adventure Races and Raiders
The Howell family has been stationed at Fort Leavenworth three times — from 2011-12 for Kristopher’s year in the Command and General Staff Officers Course, from 2015-2017 when he served as an instructor at the Command and General Staff College, and since 2020, when he served at the School of Advanced Military Studies as Advanced Strategic Leadership Studies Program fellow and instructor, and then transferred to MCTP in 2022. Each time at Fort Leavenworth, the family — to include boxer/husky mix Nutmeg — participated in several of Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation’s Adventure Races, which consisted of completing various activities while trekking across post in a timed, strategic event to locate check points. “Team Howl” frequently topped the leader board.
“I've sort of taken those Adventure Races and adapted them to Raiders,” Elisabeth said. “It's the whole wooded aspect. It's not like Raiders are looking for (control) points or anything, but the whole running around the woods and being a team, it's the same idea. Just the idea of being out in nature and figuring out how to go through things and pushing up the hills, because there are some big hills, and dodging trees — we did that during Adventure Races, and we do that during Raiders, but Raiders is definitely very different.”
Elisabeth explained that Raider teams compete in timed events that challenge them physically and mentally and reinforce teamwork. As one of the strongest members of her team, Elisabeth anchored the wall climb, helping her teammates get up and over the obstacle, and then climbed over the wall herself, with the assistance of a team member or two at the top of the wall.
During the JROTC National Raider Challenge, hosted by U.S. Army Cadet Command at Fort Knox, Kentucky, in October 2024, the LHS female and male Raider teams both took first place in the Masters Division, and Elisabeth and her teammate Katherine Schwennesen were named Ultimate Raiders for finishing first in the Ultimate Raider Challenge, a feat for which they were offered four-year Army ROTC scholarships.
In June, Elisabeth and JROTC teammates Nathanial James, Terry Mathy and Ian Morgado comprised the first LHS JROTC Academic Team to compete at the JROTC Leadership and Academic Bowl (JLAB) national competition in Washington, D.C.
Swim success
Elisabeth is a state-ranked swimmer, currently ranked as 13th with athletes in her graduating year from across the state. She swims with the Fort Leavenworth Lancers swim club in the winter and the Leavenworth High School team in the spring.
“Liz carries herself with a humble attitude that I think aids her in her push to be great in all aspects. She is also hungry for more, and those two characteristics are a recipe for quite the athlete, student and musician,” said Joe McGuire, Elisabeth’s main coach for the Lancers’ Platinum Group, the club’s most advanced training group for competitive athletes.
McGuire said Elisabeth is one of the best all-around athletes he has coached.
“Her ability in and out of the water is admirable and something she has put the work in for — and deserves all the praise,” he said. “Liz has always been a go-getter — I think that is my favorite part of coaching her — she is always willing to hear and apply new and different concepts, even ones that are in unfamiliar territory. She is always seeking ways to improve in the pool, and that is something that is hard to find in high school-aged swimmers.”
McGuire said Elisabeth has greatly improved in the three years he has coached her.
“The biggest piece of progress I have seen from her is out of the pool. She has always been an extremely hard worker in the water, but her focus outside of the pool on her nutrition, cross training and mentality is something that has propelled her to the next level,” he said.
Elisabeth just needs to shave .15 of a second off of her 50-yard freestyle and less than half a second off of her 100-yard freestyle times to beat LHS graduate Lindsay Weaverling’s longstanding swim records from 1997-2001.
“I've been working toward these records since I was a freshman — the 100 specifically, because I got eighth as a freshman, and I was like, ‘Oh, we're going places,’” Elisabeth said, noting that she cut almost two seconds from her 50-freestyle time from her sophomore to junior year. “(Weaverling) was amazing. I cannot compete with her on any other event except the 50 and 100 freestyle.”
1st “save” as lifeguard
In addition to competing with multiple swim teams, Elisabeth works as a lifeguard at the three pools on Fort Leavenworth, sometimes working the 5 a.m. shift before class during the school year.
Earlier this summer, she had her first “save.” She said she and the other lifeguards were watching a large group of children, who came into Hancock Pool with a single guardian and were showing signs of not being strong swimmers.
“We'd never seen any of these kids before — we typically only see regulars,” she said, noting some of the things she observed about the group, including that some of the children were clutching the side of the pool to move around instead of swimming with confidence. “One of the girls, I think she was probably like 12, she slips under the lane line that divides the shallow end and the deep end, and I'm watching her — I'm going to whistle at her, and then she goes under.”
Elisabeth said the girl didn’t appear to be panicked, which is one of the distress indicators lifeguards look for.
“So, I watched her, and then I saw her arms start to (flail) above her head — I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh, she's drowning!’ So I jumped in — she was completely on the opposite side of the deep end. My heart was racing so hard. I was yelling — she was under the water, she couldn't hear me — but I (yelled), ‘I'm coming for you, I'm coming for you!’”
Elisabeth said she grabbed the girl under her armpits and pulled her up and onto a rescue tube.
“It's the first time I've ever saved someone. I think we've only had three or four saves the entire summer — we typically don't get a lot of saves on post,” she said, noting that her friends who work at off-post pools report, by contrast, that minor- to serious-level rescues are nearly everyday occurrences at the other pools. She credits the post’s pool rules, including that patrons under 12 years old must be accompanied by a guardian, for helping prevent issues.
“The team did such a good job,” she said about the other six lifeguards who were on duty during that rescue at Hancock Pool. “The guard on the shallow end cleared the entire pool so we didn't have to be worried about any other patrons in the pool. Since it was during a rotation, there were guards everywhere… It was a very good response by everyone on the team.”
Perks of being an Army brat
Growing up in a military family, living many places and being exposed to different cultures have allowed Elisabeth and Alexandrea to develop empathy, understand others and develop well founded beliefs, Kristopher Howell said.
“We have made a deliberate effort to ensure Liz and Alex do not have a myopic view of the world. We wanted them to see all sides of a problem, to understand diverse views, opinions and the potential reasons for those views and opinions,” he said. “We wanted them to be compassionate to other perspectives and views, but we also wanted them to be strong in their beliefs. Had we not seen and experienced what we've been blessed to be able to do, (Elisabeth) would have less ‘evidence’ to support her beliefs. They have seen the good, the bad and sometimes the ugly of the world. That is important.”
Kristopher and Julie’s examples of service, leadership and support have helped the twins realize that their accomplishments are about more than self, he said.
“I also think their exposure to my service/leadership and their mother's service/leadership in her community, and her support to military families, has shown them that we are here to serve others, not just succeed for ourselves,” he said. “We're here for a purpose, and we should find joy in engaging that purpose.”
Kristopher said that aside from all of her accomplishments, he is most proud of Elisabeth because he knows her heart.
“She does none of these for herself, but because she believes she is called to be this way and do these things,” he said. “She is gifted with so much natural intelligence and talent, and she feels deeply that she must not squander those gifts. So, she coaches, she teaches, she shares, and she ultimately loves so many around her.”
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