Outstanding students shine in all fields
West County holds graduation ceremony Friday
By PAULA BARR
Daily Journal Staff Writer
Daily Journal Staff Writer
Thursday, May 22, 2008
The traditional graduation ceremony begins at 7 p.m. and includes musical selections from the band and choir along with speeches by several students.
Valedictorian is Brianna Martin, who also is the school district’s first person named to the Missouri Scholars 100 program. Korey Byers earned the second highest graduation honor — class salutatorian.
Although Brianna and Korey have previously received accolades for their work, being named first in the state was a pleasant surprise to Chris Scott and Darrin Aderholt, who won their respective awards in separate state competitions.
Earlier this year, Brianna was selected as one of the top 100 students across the state in the graduating class of 2008. Nominees for the honor had to meet 10 criteria in an “academic decathlon.” Brianna had to have a minimum grade point average (GPA) of 3.750; have received a score of at least 29 on the ACT or at least 1,900 on the SAT; be ranked in the upper 10 percent of the class; and have taken upper level courses in mathematics, science, English and foreign language. Her attendance had to be excellent and she must have been an exemplary school citizen who was involved in school activities.
Brianna continued her academic dedication throughout the school year and was rewarded by earning the Valedictorian slot. She said slacking off is something she cannot seem to do.
“It’s been 13 years worth of work,” she said. “I’ve graduated first in my class. My parents are thrilled.”
Brianna has completed nearly a semester of college credits in high school. She intends to complete her associate’s degree at Mineral Area College, then plans to transfer to the Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla. Brianna said she is thinking about a career in engineering, architecture or computer-aided drafting.”
Korey has had to balance school work with a part-time job, but still managed to move up from third highest in the class to second highest by the end of his senior year. He did that by setting aside special time for homework.
“I’ve always been a perfectionist,” he said. “I’ve been working toward this for a long time. It’s like an award showing everybody how hard we worked.”
This year was an academic challenge, Korey said. “It’s like the other years were easy and this year it caught up to me. I didn’t have much free time.”
Korey has always wanted a career in science, but it wasn’t until this year that he realized he wants to teach high school. He plans to attend Mineral Area College, where he already has completed 20 hours of courses. After getting his associate degree, Korey plans to transfer to Southeast Missouri State University, where he will pursue a major in chemistry education.
Chris Scott never thought about going to college until a Skills USA competition netted him first place in the state. By then, he had signed up to join the U.S. Navy after high school. He starts boot camp July 28, and plans to become a Navy aviation and electronics technician.
Now, he thinks he could do well in higher education after all. Chris is counting on the Navy to help put him through school after he finishes his four-year military stint.
Chris entered the contest at the urging of his UniTec Career Center teacher, who suggested he enter a project in the electronics category of the statewide competition. The first stage of the competition was on the district level. His project involved coordinating illumination of eight LED (light emitting diodes) in a pattern.
“I was trying to go to state on the skills section of the competition,” Chris explained. “But I only got fourth in the district.”
Meanwhile, Chris’ teacher persuaded him to take the written portion of the two-prong competition. He scored high enough to take second place in the district, which qualified him for state competition. The test had general electronics questions, such as “A resister has a yellow band, a violet band, a gold band and a silver band. What is the resistance of the resistor?” Chris explained. The answer was tied to the resistance value of each colored band.
When judges named Chris the statewide winner, “It was wonderful!” he said.
“My mom and dad about died. They announced, ‘Chris Scott,’ and I was like, ‘Oh, yeah!’”
Chris believes he is top of his class in UniTec, but falls in the middle academically in West County High School. He theorized that others could follow his key to success: “You just have to find something you like and go for it.”
Darrin also was surprised when he took first place in the state in Missouri Technology Student Association Competition.
“Last year, I went to UniTec and I took a collision repair course,” said Darrin, who has always dreamed of having his own repair shop. “This year, I couldn’t go to UniTec because I wouldn’t have enough high school credits if I did.”
One of the classes Darrin took at West County this year was woodworking. Despite the fact that it was his first woodworking class ever, Darrin undertook a large project — a hexagonal picnic table.
After it was completed, he and his classmates put their projects in a truck and trailer and headed to the district phase of the competition, held in Poplar Bluff. Darrin scored 90 out of 100 on his project to earn first place.
“The only thing they found wrong was, the bolts that held the legs on were not cut off or capped,” he explained.
Competition rules allowed Darrin to improve his project before the state competition. He cut the ends of the bolts and earned 87 out of 100 points in the state contest. That was the highest grade given by the state judges, who were much more strict than the district judges, Darrin said.
“My grandparents were pretty happy,” said Darrin, who lives with them and plans to give them the picnic table as a present.
“I was surprised because I saw some really nice woodworking up there,” he said. “It felt pretty good to win.”
Paula Barr is a reporter for the Daily Journal and can be reached at 573-431-2010, ext. 172 or at pbarr@dailyjournalonline.com.
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