Jessica Yost of Arrowhead taking golf skills to Macalester College in fall

HARTLAND (WITI) -- Jessica Yost is a senior at Arrowhead High School - and a star on the girl's golf team. But it's what she's doing off the green that perhaps, deserves more recognition.

"(The Arrowhead girl's golf team) had so much success this year that we are just so thankful for -- and then to end it with that state title, that was just the icing on the cake," Yost said.

Yost says she fell into golf after she faced a diagnosis at age 12 which limited her ability to play more rigorous sports.

"The diagnosis caused me to have to quit the sports I was really interested in - basketball, softball, volleyball, and I had to pick up something less rigorous, less exercise-inducing -- and so I took up golf freshman year. I couldn't say I was good - but I loved it!" Yost said.

Yost says golf provides her with a needed escape.

"It is such an escape for me - just from all the pressures of school and whatnot. I love to just go out on the range and put up my music and kinda just get in the zone," Yost said.

Yost graduated at semester from Arrowhead -- and after graduation, she was set to head to South Africa for a 10-week internship at the Open Arms Home for Children. The home provides love and security to children orphaned by the AIDS pandemic in South Africa.

"I will be shadowing psychologists, as well as kinda acting as the assistant director, and kinda helping to run the every day needs at the home," Yost said.

Following the internship, Yost plans to attend Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. There, she plans to major in political science or global development, and minor in African studies with a concentration in human rights and humanitarianism.

Not surprisingly, Yost says her number one role model is Nelson Mandela.

"I love him. I love everything that he stands for. He is someone who is definitely just a common man, but at the same time, he was able to just kind of take over this leadership role and literally change a country - and to say the least, everyone knows I am a huge Mandela fan - and he is just someone that I will model my life upon," Yost said.

Because of her dedication to golf - and to her "second family" in South Africa - Yost is a FOX6 High School Hot Shot.