MARYSVILLE Anna Peterson and Nick Millar are the February students of the month for the Marysville School District. She is a future teacher and exceptional athlete while he is a first-rate scholar who will do anything to avoid having a desk job. Both are seniors at Marysville-Pilchuck High School.
Peterson is an honors students with an extensive record of extracurricular activities, including leading the German Club as well as serving in the Interact Club, an offshoot of the Marysville Rotary. A nominee for the M-P Homecoming Court, she has maintained an impressive grade point average while taking advanced placement calculus. In addition to being a member of the AP Calculus Club, she has also tutored other high school students in math and chemistry. She has also taken AP comparative politics, language arts and U.S. history. They require a lot of extra work but the payoff is there, Peterson said.
I think they are better for you to prepare for college, she explained.
For her that means Whitworth College in Spokane, although she briefly considered George Fox University in Portland, Ore. Both are small Christian colleges, a big priority for the Hawaiian native who has lived in town since she was eight months old. Her faith means a lot and she puts it into motion at Mountain View Presbyterian Church.
I spend a lot of time at my church volunteering and helping out there, Peterson said.
In school she does well across-the-board but highlights English and psychology as two favorites that will give her a leg up in her future career.
I want to be an elementary school teacher so I think its interesting to know about how the brain works and how people work, Peterson said.
She hopes to teach the youngest students, in either first, second or third grades. Peterson was inspired by one of her teachers at Pinewood Elementary School, and has wanted to be a teacher for as long as she can remember.
An avid runner, Petersons sports are cross-country and track and field, where she can go the distance. Harriers chose her captain and she runs the 1,600- and 3,200-meter events in track. Hurt earlier this year, her mile was just over six minutes, she said.
We will have to gloss over her long list of volunteer activities to save both time and newsprint. At church she works in vacation bible school, serves on the Quest program for 6- to 12-year-olds, and helps with the Soul Flight junior choir. She helps out at Marysvilles Eagle Wings special needs ministry and works with Santas Helpers and the Pumpkins for Literacy Patch. Many other ventures have taken the young woman to Costa Rica to build a house for a family and to Mississippi to help families recover from the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina.
Millar is a bright young man who likes to keep busy. He finishes his school day by noon and is off to work, and he plans to keep it that way. His transcript would pass muster with any four-year college in the state, but thats not his thing. He has a bent for all things mechanical and likes to work with his hands.
Schools not very difficult for me, Millar said matter-of-factly.
His plans after school include working for the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad as either a conductor or car man. Thats a mechanic who works on all the cars, doing welding and also fixing the tracks. He might get a Commercial Drivers License since that might help his plans with the railroad. Millar said he will do anything to avoid a cubicle.
No, thats out. I dont like to sit around or do nothing, Millar said bluntly. Im more of a guy that likes to work.
His favorite class right now is civics, and he likes the construction and woodshop classes he took.
The class is fun, the teacher Mr. Mills is fun and lets you build at your own pace, he explained.
He has also taken many of the automobile and engine technology classes taught by M-Ps Chuck Nichols.
Its nice to know the basics of mechanics, he added.
Even in his spare time Millar doesnt like to sit still, citing hobbies such as work, hunting, snowboarding or camping with his friends. His mother is a cashier at M-P and his father owns a landscaping company. Family is important to him and they have been haunting the same campsite in eastern Washington for 60 years, he said. An annual hunting trip to the Ellensburg area has been going steady since 1948, and one woman has never missed at year.
I enjoy it, getting out, getting away from the city, Millar said.
Getting to hang out with all the friends and just have fun.
His favorite game includes turkey, and big game like deer and elk. The latter is the most challenging and require lots of attention, preparation and concentration, according to the 18-year-old.
They are such smart animals it makes them difficult to hunt, Millar explained. Their sense of smell, their intelligence makes it more of a challenge.
He played golf for two years but doesnt carry a handicap since he works so much and only plays for fun. He played two years as a lineman on the M-P football team as well.
His community involvement includes being a Big Buddy and Mentor for junior high and middle school students, as well as volunteering for the food bank and the local YMCA, as well as Operation Marysville Community Christmas.