Hidden behind a red apron and meek smile stands 29-year-old Emily Noll. She is kind, polite and soft spoken. She is a sister, co-worker and friend.

“She is just a joy to work with,” Jeannie Motley, KHS cafeteria unit lead manager, said. “She is very shy, but Emily sure does know her job and does it well.”

Noll has been working in the KHS cafeteria for the past four years prepping the deli bread and cookies. She attends a we

ekly book club and is the self proclaimed star of her softball team. She enjoys bowling, loves ice cream and lives for when she gets to spend the night at her best friend’s house. Despite having Down Syndrome, Noll participates in one particularly unique activity: she is an ordained minister. Noll was the minister at her sister’s wedding.

“My Uncle Bob is a minister. I have wanted to be one since I was a teenager,” Noll said. “I went on the Internet and became one. I got a license and a certificate. My uncle taught me a few speeches I can give.”

Noll enjoys doing things on her own and needs very little help with every day tasks. She takes a bus to work every day alone. She does her job with little to no assistance.

“She knows what she has to do and how to do it,” Stephanie Stayton, Employmet Specialist for St. Louis Arc, a non profit program providing mentally and physically disabled adults with support and services, who checks on Noll at work once a week, said. “All I had to do is be her personal cheerleader.”

Motley and Stayton both agree Noll has many more abilities than disabilities. She is grateful for the opportunities she has received, puts all she has into everything she does and is not ashamed of who she is. She believes that life is good and her disability should never make her think otherwise. The girl behind the fair skin, baby blue eyes and pixie cut sandy hair is truly more than meets the eye.