MARYSVILLE April Bobadilla and Clayton Smith are September Students of the Month for the Marysville School District.
The Marysville-Pilchuck High School seniors were selected for their outstanding academic achievements by the Marysville Soroptimist and Kiwanis clubs. Both are outstanding athletes as well, but Smith said he has been scaling back his turf time to work on his transcript.
A future doctor who will be studying pre-med at the University of Washington, Smiths transcript boasts a 3.942 grade point average that withstood a barrage of Advanced Placement classes in subjects like comparative politics, advanced chemistry, college-level algebra, and many others, including honors classes in his sophomore year. As he starts his final year in high school, he already has 25 college credits under his belt.
In past years Smith participated in tennis, weightlifting and soccer at school, but now hes cutting back, playing only with the Marysville Force Soccer Club and the Pacific Premier Soccer Association.
For the 17-year-old Kirland native, hitting the books has never been a chore, particularly in subjects that many students dread, such as higher level math and the hard sciences like biology, chemistry and others. He said his analytical mind was whetted by the certainty of those objective topics.
Im better at figuring out problems than remembering things from history, Smith said.
A resident of Marysville for 15 years, he said the only classes that really intimidated him were AP history courses. By contrast, math and science were right up his alley. He was surprised at how well he did during a ceramics class.
Im not a very artsy person and it was fun to express myself that way.
Away from the books he enjoys sports and leadership activities, such as serving on the senior class cabinet and as homecoming chairman. A founder of the Biotech Club, he serves as president, and is a member of the Honors Society. He has volunteered outside of school in the past at the YMCA and a local toy drive, but school is taking up more and more of his time as graduation nears, he added.
Working on school events is a fun but challenging chore, and Smith said he has learned a lot about dealing with others as he helped plan events around campus.
It easy to give people chores but its hard to get people motivated, Smith said. I had to learn to stay persistent on reminding people.
He credits math teacher Holly Castillo for her support and direction through the three years under her tutelage, especially with her help evaluating colleges and universities. He also takes pains to thank his parents because of their influence and support. A pair of hard-working, blue collar folks, Smith said they notice that he stays up late doing homework and gets up early in the mornings before they do.
They are excited because none of them went to college, Smith said. They are happy that Im stepping up this much.

April Bobadilla is a triple-threat, excelling at sports, academics and social activities, and she echoes Smiths aversion to subjective subjects. She prefers the certainty of harder fare.
I really like math, not so much history, Bobadilla said, noting that history is about wars and things like that. Math is easy for me because its based on equations and you just work them out.
A confessed people person, Bobadilla wants to be a child psychologist because it would feed her interest in her fellow beings while also providing challenge. Getting children to talk and open up about themselves and difficult situations or experiences is a tough gig, but one she thinks she will excel at. Working with youngsters will be a challenge because kids cant always say what they are trying to say, she added.
I really like working with people, especially kids, Bobadilla said. Kids are so much fun.
She would like to attend Western Washington University because shes heard it has a good reputation as a teaching college, but the volleyball addict said Skagit Valley College has mentioned opportunities on their team.
A setter with the M-P varsity team for two years, she was voted the Most Inspirational Player in 2004, an honor that the varsity tennis team also gave her this year. Playing with several select soccer teams, she served as captain of one, as well as being captain of the junior varsity volleyball team.
A 2005 Fitness scholar of the Year, Bobadilla also won the Presidents Education Award, and earned the 2007 Achievement Award for Outstanding Junior.
The scholar has earned a 3.87 GPA with a variety of classes, including chemistry, physics, college level algebra and an AP comparative politics class. She has studied conditioning, core math and Spanish for three years. A musician, Bobadilla has played alto saxophone since the sixth-grade, and is taking concert band as a senior.
She said her junior high school band teacher Mr. Joseph was an inspiration in both music and leadership fields.
Hes just really outspoken and he gave me a lot of helpful hints to help me get through high school, Bobadilla said.