Kate Davies describes Elle Jacobs as a “ball of energy.” No matter what time of day.
When Jacobs enrolled in seminary as a freshman, she made a connection with Davies right off the bat. Jacobs quickly asked Davies to take her to lunch, without any social reservation. They started going to Crown Burger whenever Davies had the chance to take her.
The car rides were just as good as the food. They would blast the music on the way there as they belted out all of the lyrics to each song that came on.
But Jacobs doesn’t save her performances for car rides. She is always on, ready to make a new friend and belt out new lyrics with perfect strangers.
“Elle is like everyone’s best friend,” Davies, a Highland senior, said. “She makes everyone feel good about themselves and is a fun person to hangout around.”
Jacobs, now a sophomore at Highland, continues to go on lunch adventures with different students and spreads her light wherever she travels.
It’s a light that comes naturally to Williams. Her personality is energetic, playful, and uninhibited. It’s a personality connected to people with Williams Syndrome, a condition Jacobs was diagnosed with when she was just two years old.
Jacobs extroverted personality helps her make friends with everyone at the school. She is constantly greeting people in the halls and chatting it up in the classroom.
Kristin has greatly appreciated the example Jacobs is for their family. She doesn’t put anyone in a stereotyped box based on their outside appearance or background. Rather, through conversation, she makes them feel seen and appreciated.
“Everyone wants to be like Elle with her great empathy and gratitude,” Kristin said.
But this booming personality began as a source of concern for Jacobs’ parents.
Most babies are diagnosed with Williams Syndrome at birth, but Kristin and Aaron, Jacob’s parents, found the answer behind her behavior when Jacobs was two-and-a-half.
Williams Syndrome is similar to Down Syndrome in the way that there is a range of complications and multiple people experience it differently. It’s caused specifically by a deletion of chromosome 7.
But Jacobs continues to shine through her diagnosis with her confident personality.
Being this extroverted has also given her the courage to get involved at Highland. Jacobs is a Unified Athlete and even became a state champion during the track meet at Brigham Young University (BYU).
Jacobs first started participating with the University of Utah Special Athletics when she was younger. As she transitioned to high school, unified sports came to Highland. Unified has soccer in the fall, basketball in the winter, and track in the spring. Jacobs loves to participate all year round.
She is not afraid to try new things. Throughout practice she will encourage the partners and her teammates. Jacobs invites everyone she sees in the halls to come and play with Unified during 4B.
“Elle is not afraid to invite people,” Heather Brown, Highland unified coach, said. “She tends to be super enthusiastic and full of sunshine. And brings so much happiness and light to Highland High.”
During gametime, Jacobs started to create diversions by talking to the other team. This was super fun for Jacobs and allowed her teammates to get passed them and score.
After she got first place in track last year down at BYU, they had her stand up on the podium. She would pose for all the photographers up there and even flashed the U to show where her loyalty really lied even though she was in Provo.
“She was the best character ever on the podium! She kept posing for picture after picture and it made everybody happy,” Brown said.
Jacobs continues to be involved with the Kindness Counts Club and participates in the dance classes at Highland. She shows up for as many basketball and football games as she can to cheer on her peers.
She loves coming to the events because of the atmosphere, especially at games where music is constantly played.
One specific effect of Williams Syndrome is enhanced hearing. Jacobs can hear many sounds that someone with regular hearing wouldn’t pick up, which can even include dog whistles.
Jacobs absolutely loves music. She always has an AirPod in and sings to the rap lyrics as she strides down to her next class. Some of her favorite artists include Johnny Orlando, TLC, and Rihanna.
She is open to any genre of music except country, which she thinks is the “absolute worst.” Which is unfortunate because it’s her dad’s favorite genre.
Music therapy is also a great resource for Elle. She has permission from her teachers to have “music breaks” where she can go out in the hall to walk around for a little bit and listen to some good music.
She has an Amazon device in her room that allows her to listen to music at home and will sometimes listen to her music with her family as they play their clean family bangers.
The influence of music on people with Williams Syndrome is still being studied, but there has been confirmed a positive connection between the two.
Jacobs loves to use her music knowledge to connect with the students around her. As she has auditioned to be in the Highland Dance classes and connected with those girls she has continued to spread her light to the stage.
Another favorite topic of conversation she has is talking about the new albums coming out over the weekend. This even includes texting her best friends when the albums drop and what songs they need to start listening to.
She continues to stand tall as she gets involved in multiple different ways strengthening the Ram Fam culture at Highland.
“I love the community here at Highland,” Jacobs said. “I feel so safe here and the people are just so nice.”
Williams Syndrome has helped introduce Jacobs into new ways of being involved at Highland. As she continues to share her story with peers, as a single student she has been able to unite the student body.
