ASHLEY TERRY
Azle High School seniors Brady Danford, Amy Mesta, Caleb Scoggins and Madison Thomas were recognized by the Rotary Club of Azle for being January’s students of the month during its weekly meeting Jan. 15.
BRADY DANFORD
Brady Danford, the son of Nathan and Staci Danford, plans to attend the University of North Texas in Denton and later, The New School of Music in New York City following graduation. While he said his first major of choice will be general music, he intends to switch his major to bass performance after his freshman year. Once he earns his bachelor’s degree, Danford said he wants to obtain his master’s degree at a similar institution, majoring in jazz studies.
“Beyond that, I want to move and begin playing gigs professionally and being the band leader of different bands,” he said. “Along with that, my main goal, way later on, is to be a composer to write music in both the classical and jazz idioms. Composing music is the way end goal, but for now, I want to play a lot of music with my friends and make some money now.”
As evidenced by his future college and career plans, Danford’s passion for music is tenfold. As a student at AHS, he plays clarinet in the band and is a drum major for the marching band. He also plays bass guitar in the jazz band.
“Jazz, that’s my main genre of choice,” Danford said. “I compete regularly in the TMEA (Texas Music Educators Association) all-state process and this year, I was the sixth best bass player in the state on the jazz side.”
Danford said one aspect of his life others may not know is that he composes music in the western art music tradition. He said he also considers himself self-employed, as he plays music in a professional paid gig setting and teaches one-on-one private lessons.
Along with band, Danford also participates in debate and Family, Career and Community Leaders of America, where he leads a parliamentary procedure team.
“For FCCLA, I do many different community outreach events like fundraising and volunteering all around Azle,” he said.
While Danford said he considers himself to be quite disorganized outside of band, he is learning to overcome this weakness by putting himself on a more rigorous schedule. He said the three words he would use to describe himself are “loud,” “unique” and “creative.”
“Greg Davis and Matthew Assis would know me the best out of anyone on the AHS staff. They would probably describe me as hardworking and talented,” he said. “They also showed me that in my career path of music —which is often a daunting and hard one — that you can be yourself, make a living, have a good wage and help your community by being an important member. They showed me that it’s possible to succeed in this career path.”
AMY MESTA
Amy Mesta is the daughter of Juan and Nereida Mesta. While she said she isn’t sure what college she wants to attend following graduation, she knows she wants to major in either forensics or criminology so she can become a crime scene investigator.
Although Mesta said she’s proud of herself for maintaining straight A’s and building a better mindset, she wishes she could tell her younger self to take risks and not be afraid to put herself out there — especially since taking risks is what led to her finding her passion for criminal justice.
“This was my first year in the criminal justice club and I was planning on doing it last year, but I was kind of scared to because I didn’t know anyone in there,” she said. “This year, I kind of forced myself to go out there and do it, and I really enjoy it.”
As her first year in the criminal justice club, Mesta said she will be competing in the crime scene investigations competition. To prepare, she said her team will be meeting up every Tuesday to practice what it’s like to do an actual crime scene investigation — an experience she never thought she would have a few years ago.
“When I first entered high school, I was a very shy student and struggled to speak up in classes or in front of others,” she said. “However, throughout the years, I've pushed myself various times to be more out there and now can confidently start a conversation with anyone and am able to work better with others.”
Besides the criminal justice club, Mesta also serves as a photographer for yearbook, participates in the culinary side of FCCLA and is a member of Peer Assisted Leadership, where she goes to a different elementary school each day to visit with an assigned pal.
Mesta said she would describe herself as someone who is “optimistic,” “hardworking” and “dependable,” —characteristics she has exemplified through her various volunteer experiences.
“I volunteered for various field days at local elementary schools throughout May of 2025, where I helped instruct the kids on what they should be doing,” she said. “I volunteered at a senior living home in September of 2024, where we did an arts and crafts activity with the senior citizens. I volunteered at Sting Fling to do free kids’ face painting in September 2022, 2023 and 2024, where I painted kids’ faces for free. I also volunteered for kids’ free face painting at the Christmas parade in December 2023 and 2024.”
Mesta said Samantha Baker, her culinary instructor, is one teacher who has been the most influential to her during her high school years.
“She’s always been there for me through thick and thin,” she said. “She’s taught me so many life lessons and has always just been a great guide for me. She’s just such a great teacher all-around to all of her students because she knows how to be really personal with her students and teach them everything that you would need to know.”
CALEB SCOGGINS
Caleb Scoggins, the son of Mark and Amanda Kucker, plans to attend Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, where he will major in English — a topic he’s “always been passionate about.” After earning his bachelor’s degree, Scoggins plans to attend a law school where he can become a certified lawyer.
“The end goal is to become a state prosecutor, district attorney or assistant district attorney,” he said. “That’s my goal. Law is what I’m passionate about.”
To strengthen his lawyer skills, Scoggins has consistently competed in the district University Interscholastic League competition for Lincoln Douglass debate, and he currently serves as the president of the speech and debate club at AHS. Throughout his four years of being involved in the club, Scoggins said he’s been to 10 tournaments, where he has taken notice of the club’s success.
“Though we have a small program at Azle High School, it’s still relatively new, like five or six years, and we’ve been able to see a lot of success and a lot of growth in the program,” he said.
Describing himself as “prompt,” “passionate” and “hardworking,” Scoggins stated he is always on time with due dates and is consistently early to practices, rehearsals and competitions.
“I care deeply about my career path and the activities I've chosen to commit my time to, and I do all I can to achieve success in these endeavors,” he said. “I've been known to struggle more with new material and concepts than many of my classmates. I've had to overcome my issues with understanding through harder work outside of class so that I can understand efficiently.”
He added that his debate coach, Megan House, and his percussion director, Michael Strange, would both describe him as someone who is “dedicated,” “competent,” and “reliable.”
“Mr. Strange is a very skilled and qualified musician. He’s very talented at teaching these students, and he's always done a great job at making us feel welcome and not make us feel bad when we mess up but also holding us extremely accountable for our responsibilities in the program,” Scoggins said. “Coach House, while speech and debate is a new program, she has done a very good job of building the program from the ground up. She's gotten exposed to a lot of good students who are very talented, and she's been able to shape them into better and more talented, professional people.”
While Scoggins said he has weak time management skills, he’s been able to combat this issue by blocking out his schedule and completing to-do lists for his classes and chores — leaving ample time for his current server job at Nagoya and his various volunteer efforts.
MADISON THOMAS
Madison Thomas, the daughter of Jeremy and Lyndsey Thomas, plans to attend the University of Texas at Austin, where she hopes to graduate with a degree in aerospace engineering. While she hopes to get a Ph.D. someday, Thomas said she would love to work at NASA as an aerospace engineer and later switch careers to become a professor so she can “teach the next generation.”
At AHS, Thomas is involved in many extracurricular activities, including art club, archery and the Visual Arts Scholastic Event.
“I’m especially proud of going to state every year with Azle’s archery team,” Thomas said. “I’m also proud of my achievements in VASE despite it being my first year in art, and I’m looking forward to doing much better this upcoming year.”
During spring break, Thomas said she will compete in the VASE art competition, where she will present her piece called “Imago,” which is the final life stage of metamorphosis.
“My piece is a stag beetle that I’ve painted myself,” she said. “You’re not supposed to use any reference images unless you’ve taken the images yourself, so it’s definitely taken a lot of practice. I’m hoping to present my piece and talk more about how it represents a metaphor for myself and how I’ve grown throughout high school since it’s my last piece in VASE.”
In fact, Thomas said if she could, she would go back in time and tell her younger self to get out of her comfort zone, so she could’ve found her passion for art sooner.
“I only joined art last year and I think I totally could have gone so much further if I had put myself out there a bit more,” Thomas said. “I think my main thing would definitely want to be more outgoing and less nervous. Not everyone’s watching you like you always think.”
Thomas said she gives major credit to her design teacher, Lauren Henson, and robotics instructor Ramon Quevedo — who retired last year — for their guidance and inspiration.
“Mrs. Henson is certainly one teacher who knows me very well. She’s an amazing teacher. I hope she’d compliment my attention to detail and mention that I’m a very creative person,” Thomas said. “I was also super involved in robotics and python coding with Mr. Quevedo, who, fortunately for him, retired last year, but they’re both very big influences in my high school career, and they’ve helped me decide what I want to do in life.”
