BOSTON -- Every two weeks, NewsCenter 5 presents a high school senior who has taken the lessons of the classroom and applied them to life.

This week's A Plus student is Plymouth North High School's Lauren Maloney.

NewsCenter 5's Shiba Russell reported that it is still tough for Lauren to say can't. She is third in her class, an emergency medical technician trainee, sailing club captain, and violinist since the age of 5, but she can't race for the cross country team she captains. Last year, doctors diagnosed Lauren with exercise-induced asthma.

"It's like running with a straw in your mouth and only being able to breathe through that," said Lauren.

At one point, she had been testing four drugs and her studies began to suffer.

"I'd take the inhaler before practice and then I'd be so wired after practice. I couldn't do my homework, I couldn't concentrate, I couldn't study," Lauren said.

"That's part of the reason why I nominated her is because of the fact that she was fighting something and didn't talk about it and would always be there," said Cross Country Coach John Laverty.

Remarkably, Lauren only failed two tests and her report card reflected all A's.

"She held out pretty strong. She just really didn't ... show anyone she didn't want anyone to feel bad for her," said Lauren's brother Bryan.

Lauren could not simply stand on the sidelines, so she started a peer tutoring program and drafted her teammates to help. Lauren's challenge involved teaching math in Spanish to a fellow student from the Dominican Republic.

"The hardest part was trying to explain fractions like how do you describe that it's a part of something and then think of that in English in my head and then try to translate it, that's hard to do," said Lauren.

But her hard work paid off. The team won a sportsmanship award and Lauren learned how to deal with her first F: Failure.

"If I want something, I'll sit there, I'll put the work in. I don't care how much work it takes, I'll do it. I'll get it done and it'll be the best I can do," Lauren said.