If Arvada West High School senior Kaylee Stone were to summarize the takeaways she has from her time in high school, she would say that “the world is a lot bigger than just you and there’s so much to learn and to take in and to experience.”

This message rings true of her high school years. Stone has dedicated herself to serving others through her time in Sources of Strength and by volunteering at Miracles Therapeutic Horse Center. Stone has also been an active part of the water quality department at A-West and currently holds an internship.

Sources of Strength:

If you were to walk into Stone’s bedroom, her walls would be evident of her time and commitment to Sources of Strength, a national suicide prevention program; on her walls, Stone hangs up the Sources of the Strength wheel, that highlights the sources that act as an anchor for the program: family support, positive friends, mentors, healthy activities, generosity, spirituality, physical health and mental health.

Since her first introduction to Sources in middle school- while being a part of it because she was in student government- Stone has worked to be an active part of the Sources of Strength program in the district and to remind others of the different aspects of their life that make it worth living.

“ I have yet to find anybody in the schools that I’ve been a part of or as a district trainer that can’t identify at least one thing on the wheel that they got,” Stone says.

The wheel extends as her own act of guidance in her own life.” It’s everywhere [the sources.] But you know I’ll like to come into my room and I’m like ‘god today sucked’ and then I have all of these sources things starting at me. And I’m like it’s not as bad as you’re making it out to be.”

What further has drawn Stone into Sources of Strength, she is clear to say that there cannot be a stigma when it comes to students continuing to live or not. Stone is adamant and firm to say that “You can’t be scared to have a conversation that saves people’s lives.”

Stone has been no stranger to having these conversations. In her senior year, Stone has worked as a district intern for Sources of Strength in Jefferson County Public Schools. Stone was contacted prior to the 2024-2025 school year with the opportunity, making her one of the first interns for Sources of Strength.

Since undergoing training, Stone has visited many schools across the district. Reflecting on these visits, Stone says that “ the cultures are so wildly different at every school that you go to. You have some schools where there’s like multiple sources, murals, and there’s projects in the hallway and every teachers got sources stuff on their door. And there’s some schools where there’s nothing.”

As an intern, Stone has also had the opportunity to do numerous talks with adults across the district. One of these talks was about students that the program needed to focus on more. Stone responded saying that “ super high functioning students that are involved in a ton of things and they’re super tight on keeping straight A’s” needed to be focused on more, a comment that resulted in her receiving lots of positive feedback because it was something the program hadn’t considered.

Through another adult advisor training, Stone met one of the national leaders, Dan Adams, VP of Programs for Sources of Strength. To Stone, Adams is someone who has “immensely impacted my life and my desire to be a part of Sources. He’s taken the time to send me a very, very thoughtful email .. and he just has helped me process a lot and become very devoted to what Sources do.”
That training is also what Stone notes as the highlight of her time in the five years she’s been a part of the program. Reflecting on this day, Stone says that “it was just a collection of people that have shaped the person I’ve become and it was an honor to be able to stand with them and to train with them.”

She continues to say that  they “were super impressed with me and it means a lot when these people have dedicated their entire lives to this and they’re impressed by something that I’m doing.”

“ It made me feel like I was doing well by them and that [ was] my biggest fear going into it, was messing it up and like doing a disservice to people.”

Adams, reflects on moments like these and states that “when a young person speaks and shares their experience and their insight about why this work matters, I think adults listen in a different kind of way. In that training, that happened a number of times when Kaylee opened her mouth and shared from her own perspective, from her own experience and from her wisdom around Sources of Strength that really impacted us as adults and inspires and reminds us why we do this work.”

Miracles Therapeutic Riding Center

 As a freshman, Stone began to volunteer at Miracles Therapeutic Riding Center, an organization dedicated to serving those with debilitating conditions through therapeutic horsemanship.

After undergoing training and shadowing sessions, Stone began to volunteer  independently every Saturday. During her first days as a volunteer, Stone recalls being very nervous due to the new environment and new concept of therapeutic horsemanship. However, one Saturday, she recalls an interaction with one of the riders who is “ a big [part of what made me comfortable and feel like Miracles was something that I could really find a second family in.”

Stone recalls one rider, that she had “never seen a kid light up so quickly.”

“ She was just cantering around and yelling ‘Yee-haw!’ and looking at me. It was a very comforting sight because I knew that feeling and I knew the pure enjoyment she was getting from her lesson which is the goal of all of it.”

Being an organization that serves those with debilitating conditions, Stone shares that a goal of Miracles is to focus on fun since “ all of our students spend so much of their lives in therapy and they deserve to have something that’s a release and something they can just be themselves in.”

This purpose ties back to Stone’s initial interest in Miracles, as she shares that in middle school she worked with unified programs. “ I found comfort in the amount of enjoyment that they take from just living.”

According to Stone, Miracles is a space “where everything that they [clients] do is for their growth and their enjoyment.”

Over the three years Stone has worked with Miracles, she has been able to witness some of this growth. Stone recalls seeing some wheelchair bound clients becoming able to walk or  non-verbal students becoming able to talk as a result of therapeutic horsemanship. It is the transformations like these that make Stone feel like she is contributing to something good.

“Knowing that you’re a part of such drastic changes in the program and out of the program, it’s very fulfilling and it makes you feel good going to bed at night because we need more good in the world.”

Stone goes on to elaborate about stereotypes for people with debilitating conditions and that they are “treated as though they can’t do anything for themselves or do anything the right way.”

Because of that stereotype, Stone states another importance of Miracles: to give people with debilitating conditions socialization.

Not only does Miracles help its clients with socialization, but it has also helped Stone. Stone who describes herself as “extremely introverted,” and “socially awkward,” shares that she is easily able to connect with her clients. 

She elaborates: “I personally work with a lot of nonverbal students and it speaks to how your actions speak louder than your words. I have never left feeling as though one of those students didn’t appreciate what I was doing.”

The people Stone works with at Miracles, whether it be clients or volunteers, hold a large importance to her as Stone says they have been by her side for a “transformative period of her life;” in the process of working with Miracles, Stone says that the support and commitment she has received from the organization had pushed her to gain more confidence and pursue things that she wouldn’t have otherwise.

Water Quality:

One event that Stone says she has had her confidence developed in due to the support she received from Miracles is testifying at the Denver Capital. As a sophomore, Stone’s water quality class worked on projects such as TikToks and drawings to educate others in support of Senate Bill 23-150. Stone testified alongside Kimberly Cohen, who now Stone works for in her internship with Metro Water Recovery. 

Stone describes her experience at her internship as a learning curve for everyone involved since she is among the first operation interns. 

In her day to day, Stone does a number of activities in her internship such as cleaning sensors or taking the PH levels of the post aerobic digesters.

The possibility of her internship comes from Stone’s involvement in the A-West water quality program, a program that she has been a part of since her sophomore year. Besides testifying and her internship, Stone has also gone on a number of field trips as a part of the program, such as career panels to learn about the industry or field trips to treatment plants; all these experiences have led Stone to grow close with water quality teacher Christopher Madsen.

Stone is no short of gratitude towards Madsen as she also describes his class as her favorite class throughout high school: “ [ he]  has created a far better path for me than I would have ever created for myself or given myself the credit to be able to continue down.”

Madsen extends this attitude towards Stone, as he notes that “ She has been a really active participant in the water quality pathway here in Arvada West. [ She is] the first student that is doing a paid internship while still in school, and is going to really pave the way for students in the pathway to have a lot more opportunities because of the hard work she’s done.”

Alongside Madsen, Stone also looks up to Cohen because she is a woman in the field. After meeting Cohen for the first time by testifying, Stone recalls thinking that “you don’t see many women in the water quality field so I thought it was really cool that she’s the director.”

Cohen has also provided Stone with more experiences in the water quality field. According to Stone, Cohen has taken her on a one on one sight tour, and Stone says she had “no clue how much of an honor it was.”

The future:

As Stone looks into the future, she plans on continuing pursuing Water Quality Management at Red Rocks Community College.

Stone shares that she has met a number of the people involved in the water quality department at Red Rocks and that she is excited to continue learning from those people. But with a new start, Stone is also worried about finding balance in her life between her education, volunteering, and personal mental health.

Being able to find a balance is especially important to Stone, as she notes her time with Sources of Strength, Miracles and exploring the water quality field, has been fundamental to the person she is today. This leads Stone to a question for her future self: “ Are you still involved with the programs that shaped you?”

Through these programs Stone has met some of the most influential people in her life. By the time high school is over, she wishes to “set my pride aside and tell the people there that have influenced me that they have influenced me and that I feel as though my future is better set out because of their contributions to my high school.”