Ronan High School senior Maddy Perry has a goal – to be a residential architect.

It all began with an Upward Bound trip to San Francisco before her freshman year. She saw a set of buildings that appeared to be stacked on top of each other.

“And just seeing them stacked on each other and the architecture style that there was, I was like I want to build that, I want to know everything about it,” she said. “I wanted to research it, and I did.”

And so she discovered the art and science of designing buildings, and now plans to attend Montana State University this fall and pursue a five-year architecture degree. She’s checked out the classes she’ll take already and has some scholarships in her war chest.

But she won’t start right away. Maddy and her grandmother share an apartment, and her grandmother is diabetic, so she plans to take a gap year so her grandmother can get used to her absence.

Ronan High School Counselor Jennifer Cheff said Maddy arranged the whole thing herself, contacting the university and delaying her admission and scholarships for a year.

Madison Rae Perry is her full name, and she is a member of the Eastern Shoshone tribe. She grew up in the small town of Fort Washakie, Wyo., and her family moved to Ronan when she was in fourth grade. In 2020, her mom moved to Arlee but Perry opted to remain in Ronan.

She lived with her best friend during her sophomore year before getting an apartment with her grandmother. Living with her grandmother, who beaded the edges of Maddy’s cap and gown prior to graduation, has taught her some valuable lessons.

“When I came home, she welcomed me with open arms,” says Maddy. “So stay close with the people you love.”

At Ronan High, Maddy has taken classes that will help with her degree, including engineering, which taught her to use a Computer Aided Design (CAD) program, drafting and construction, which was offered in eighth grade.

The budding architect says she loves to draw.

“For a long time, I used to be the kid who could draw,” she said. When there was an art project, kids would say, “Maddy, will you be my partner?” because she could draw so well.

Claire Hibbs-Cheff, the RHS librarian who also teaches creative writing, is publishing some of her students’ work, and 27 of Maddy’s poems will appear in the book.

“She’s a beautiful writer,” Hibbs-Cheff said. Maddy was her teaching assistant this year. She also took French class last year with Hibbs-Cheff.

Learning a language requires memorizing vocabulary, tenses, and the quirks of each language, and “Maddy has incredible powers of memorization,” Hibbs-Cheff says.

She describes Maddy as “extremely capable and (someone who) wants to make her way in the world. Her greatest strength, one that stands out, is the inner strength that propels her forward.”

A true Renaissance girl, Maddy loves music and plays the trombone. She also took on a leadership role with the jazz band, playing solos at the group’s Dinner Dance this year.

As far as other opportunities for learning, Maddy said she’s enjoyed studying Salish and other languages, economics, and advanced placement classes.

While the academics at RHS are good, Maddy has some concerns about the district’s priorities. For example, she says the school spent $40,000 on vape detectors to nab kids who are vaping at school. However, she’s heard from students in sewing classes that their machines are old, and they don’t have much fabric for projects. It doesn’t seem equitable, she says.

The COVID pandemic and resulting online learning posed a major barrier for Maddy. “I’ve just been coasting since then,” she added – if you can call calculus coasting.

Asked what advice she would give freshmen coming into high school, she was succinct: “Don’t be a rat, and be respectful.”