When roaming the halls of her school, Cydney Algee cuts a path through her fellow classmates to get to where she needs to go. In the same way, she has navigated the challenges in her life to reach her goals.

Cydney, a junior at Hazelwood West High School in the Hazelwood School District, has had issues with memory loss, visual-spatial skills, certain motor skills and strength due to having sickle cell disease. But she has worked hard to deal with these things to become a standout student.

As a freshman and sophomore, she took upper-level science classes to help set her on a path to reach her goal of becoming a veterinary assistant. She took another step this year toward her goal by attending North Technical High School as part of the Veterinarian Assistant Program.

Cydney was chosen by the Special Education Foundation to participate in the Fred Saigh Leadership Program and is a Silver Award winner from the Girl Scouts. She has won the Special Education Department Award each of the past two years at Hazelwood West High, as well as the Teacher’s Choice award and Best of West awards.

“Her outstanding attitude and leadership skills, along with her perseverance and drive have been inspiring,” said her SSD teacher, Denise Inman.