MARYSVILLE Sports and his church (and not necessarily in that order) seem to be the main focuses for one of Marysville-Pilchuck High Schools two students of the month, Peter Clark.
For his counterpart, Shelby Mundt, music and the schools marching band are the things that make her tick the most.
Both 17 and both seniors, Peter and Shelby are the high schools first students of the month for 2008.
Peter has been a wide receiver for the Tomahawks football team for three years. He lettered this past season. He did the breaststroke for the swim team for three years as well, lettering all three years. He ran cross country his freshman year. But Peter also said his favorite sport long has been soccer. He has been a team captain in that sport for two years.
Outside of school, Peter has been a member of the Mountain View Presbyterian Church since the seventh grade. His father Hal Clark has been a deacon and served in other leadership posts at Mountain View, while mom Stephanie works for the church. Peter said he has plenty of friends at the church and hes involved in various Mountain View groups.
Its just been a good place for me to be, he said.
While Peter belongs to a small Bible study group, the churchs youth group and so on, he also has been on three missionary trips. Traveling with his family to the Dominican Republic in 2001, Peter went on his first mission trip at age 11.
It was an eye opening experience, he said, Seeing poverty like that.
Since then, Peter has traveled to Mississippi to help with hurricane relief and last summer went to Costa Rica and helped build a home for a woman with 14 children. The family had been living in what Peter described as a metal shack.
Peter plans at least one more mission trip this summer, though he doesnt yet know the destination. In any case, as usual, hell spend the spring doing odd jobs such as lawn work to help pay for the trip.
In regard to Shelby and her love of music, it began long before she arrived at Marysville-Pilchuck. A flutist, she got hooked on the instrument after getting to know an older neighbor youth who played the instrument herself.
I absolutely love it, Shelby said.
Shelby has played in the Marysville-Pilchuck concert and marching bands. The latter seems to be her favorite even taking into account the fact she says its a lot of work. She voluntarily added to that workload earlier this year. When a regular drum major became unavailable, Shelby was asked to step in and gladly did so.
The marching band is much more social and much more strict in a way, Shelby said. She argues there is plenty of practice that goes into those field shows you may have watched from the stands during football games. And, of course, as a drum major, Shelby had a big hand in leading the way this past year. What motivates her to put so much effort into music and the school bands?
The band is my main group of friends, Shelby said. Its what I do.
Outside of school, Shelby has played in at least two invitation-only orchestras. While music takes up plenty of her time, Shelby also was involved with Marysville-Pilchucks holiday food drive this year.
In the past, she has mentored younger students, helped organize blood drives and been involved with whats now known as the Gay and Straight Alliance at the school. Back in the ninth grade, she spent plenty of Friday nights babysitting, not for profit, but to allow her charges mothers the time to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.
Shelby is the daughter of Eric Mundt and Ronda Henderson.
In addition to their various extracurricular activities, Shelby and Peter carry 3.7 and 3.6 GPAs respectively. How do they manage their time?
Youve just got to plan out when youre going to do things, Shelby said.
If Im not doing something, I should be, Peter said. He claimed being busy actually makes planning his time easier.
For the future, Peter hopes to attend Seattle Pacific University. Hes not totally sure about a major, but is leaning toward some sort of scientific or medical discipline.
As for Shelby, she hopes to be going to Reed College in Portland. She thought about majoring in music, but for now has settled on a minor in that discipline. For her major, she wants to enter Reeds apparently unique ecological restoration program.