LAPLACE — The first thing Yasmin Moore wants you to know about her is, she believes — no, she knows — she is very intelligent.

It’s not just that the rising seventh grader at Lake Pontchartrain Elementary School was nominated for Student of the Year, nor that when she was in fourth grade she recorded a perfect score on the LEAP test.

It’s also that she knows a good subject for a social studies project.

Yasmin found hers during a family trip to watch the Angola Prison Rodeo last year. She did her project on the Louisiana Penitentiary System and won first place in her school.

Yasmin said it was an easy choice.

“I went to the rodeo and I just preferred to do it on that instead of researching other things because I already knew a lot about it,” Yasmin said. “I learned how they first started in the 1900s. They do the rodeo every year and they sell things that the prisoners make. It was really cool. I liked all the clowns running all over.”

An honor student at Lake Pontchartrain, Yasmin’s favorite subject is math.

“I just find it easier than the other subjects,” she said.

Outside the classroom, Yasmin has several activities to keep her busy. She sings in the choir at her church, Zion Travellers Baptist Church.

She also has been going to dance classes for six years. Jazz is her favorite style there.

Lake Pontchartrain Elementary Teacher of the Year Jennifer Brock said Yasmin is a wonderful student.

“I taught her in fourth grade,” Brock said. “She’s always willing to help other students out and be a leader. She’d pretty much take over your class if you let her. If she doesn’t know the answer to a question, she gets frustrated. She’s that type of student.”

Yasmin, the daughter of Juniya Robinson and the late Gary Joseph,  said she loves attending Lake Pontchartrain Elementary.

“The teachers are nice,” she said.

One of the best parts, though, is her grandmother, Edna Duhe, works there.

“I always go to her classroom to get food,” Yasmin said. “I like having her here.”

While she still has a lot of time to mull it over, Yasmin is pretty sure she wants to be a doctor when she grows up.

In particular, she’d like to be a pediatrician.

“I want to cure disease for children,” she said. “I’d like to find out about how the human body works for children because I am one.”