“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
I had the good fortune this week to meet a group of high-school seniors who will definitely be blazing trails in the years to come.
Consider that among 19 area seniors selected to be on the Joplin Globe All-Area Academic Excellence Team, all of them had ACT scores of 33 or better. One among them had a 36, a perfect ACT score, and a perfect 4.0 grade-point average.
No, they’ll have no trouble at all with Emerson’s challenge.
The Globe is the first newspaper in the state to honor academics by naming an excellence team. The project started in 1988 under the guidance of Dr. Ron Lankford, Webb City R-7 superintendent. Katy Schrader, the Globe’s Newspaper In Education director, oversees this remarkable program.
Watching each year as the selections are made, I’ve often suspected that the brightest of the bright, well, just keep getting brighter. Janet K. Myers, communication arts teacher at Joplin High School, confirmed my suspicions Thursday night. Myers has been on the selection committee for 21 of the 23 teams named by the Globe.
“It’s amazing. You think there’s no way that next year’s group can be any better, yet they are. Who would have thought a few years ago that a student with a 32 on their ACT and a 4.0 GPA wouldn’t make the cut for the team? Yet, this year, that was the case,” Myers told me.
But there’s so much more to this team than brains. Myers said she has discovered that the team members share other characteristics. They generally love life, they almost always have tremendous family support and they see opportunities for learning where perhaps others wouldn’t.
Myers has also recognized changes. She says that given the turmoil of the times, these students feel a responsibility to be the ones who will change the world.
“They don’t just enter a profession because they will make a lot of money. That’s not what it’s about to them. They feel the burden of responsibility. They know they’ve been given a gift. I think they realize, without being egotistical in any way, that they are more extraordinary than they are ordinary,” she said.
I loved the sound of that phrase — more extraordinary than they are ordinary. I listened carefully as the students walked to the podium, many of them accompanied by a teacher who had made a difference.
Again, there were commonalties. You see, the teachers they brought with them were teachers who had held them to high standards. They didn’t make class easy, they made it harder for them.
The audience cheered when Will Keczkemethy, a Joplin High School advanced-placement government and politics teacher, took a moment to dispel notions that students today are “lethargic and unmotivated.”
“I just want to say that hard work, honesty and integrity are alive and well,” said Keczkemethy, as student Alex Moreland stood by his side.
If you want to know more about this brilliant group of teens, turn to today’s People section, and there you will find those who are certain to lead us into the future.
Have no doubts that they are ready. As Alan Good, a College Heights Christian School senior, got ready to walk away from the podium, he paused, then tried to sum what it was that made him different.
“I want to know what comes next,” he told the audience.
Now, after meeting our newest academic team, so do I.
Carol Stark is editor of The Joplin Globe. Address correspondence to her, c/o The Joplin Globe, P.O. Box 7, Joplin, MO 64802 or e-mail cstark@joplinglobe.com.
