My parents had a green-and-yellow swing set in their backyard when I was a child. It consisted of two swings, a slide, and a seesaw. My younger sister and I spent hours playing on it, swinging high into the air and sliding down the metal slide. My favorite part, however, was the top bar. I used it as a gymnastics bar, flipping around and around the top of the swing set until I hurled myself into the grass. 

Lexi Zeiss probably understands the pure joy of flying off the uneven bars. Zeiss has been doing so since a young age. These days, she is a Senior Elite gymnast, eligible to compete at the American Cup and the U.S. Championships. She is also a top student at Westside High School, taking honors courses between training. How she achieved this level of skill in gymnastics is the subject of our Super Student article.

Local musician and actor Billy McGuigan learned as a middle-school student that the arts, particularly theater arts, are important professions, and he and former Omaha Community
Playhouse Artistic Director Kimberly Faith Hickman have created the McGuigan Arts Academy. 

Our other feature builds on the first, seeking to inform readers about careers in theater arts. Theater is a collaborative occupation that involves everything from project management to public speaking. Students who exceled in local high school theater programs work in a variety of careers, from broadcasting to owning a business. The article discusses the professional skills these students gained through the performing arts 

There’s a lot of great articles in this issue. I hope you enjoy them all. 

This editor's note originally appeared in the 2021 edition of Family Guide.