Lucie Henein
Senior, Richard Montgomery High School
Lucie Henein has always loved animals. She’s owned cats, dogs, hamsters, fish, birds, a bunny and even a leopard gecko. Lucie has handled chickens at the barn where she rides horses, and she’s met a range of farm animals at an animal sanctuary that she raised money for.
In the classroom, the 17-year-old senior is a “brilliant” student who is hardworking with a never-ending curiosity, says science teacher Virginia Azuree.
Lucie wants to combine her passion for animals with her aptitude for science and become a veterinarian, specializing in equine surgery. “Every single aspect of her life has been dedicated to doing that,” says Lucie’s school counselor, Evan Anderson. “It’s not like she says: ‘I think I want to become a vet.’ It’s: ‘I know I want to be a vet and this is what I am doing to make it happen.’ ”
Lucie, who lives in Germantown and attends Richard Montgomery for its International Baccalaureate program, spends countless hours focusing on animals. She interned at the Biomedical Research Institute in Rockville, where she’s hoping to get the results of a study she worked on about canine bladder worm published in a scientific journal. She works part time at Kentlands Veterinary Hospital in Gaithersburg, has volunteered at a horse camp, and is president of Tails for Change, a program at school that raises awareness about animal abuse and supports animal shelters. Some Saturday nights, Lucie and her mom volunteer to sit with premature or sick horses in the Foal Watch program at a Virginia Tech equine hospital in Leesburg.
“I learn something new every time I’m with an animal,” says Lucie, who has a 3.94 GPA and plans to study animal science in college. “Animals are just a pleasure to be around. They have this innate innocence about them.”