Junior James Barker encountered many struggles in his years of high school, but chose to never let them bring him down.
Barker, like many new high school students, found himself overwhelmed by the large differences in his learning environment. He continued to struggle under his ever changing conditions, doing his best to avoid the trap that all freshmen tend to meet.
Unfortunately he did fall into this trap. James was beginning to struggle and his grades were showing this. Many people who find themselves in this situation continue slide along this path, knowing that they can never truly return their GPA to its good standing.
However there are other students who acknowledge this, but understand that it is not the end of their high school career. Barker is one of these individuals, as explained how he “got better sophomore year, and even better junior year.”
Soon his grades were back to normal, as well as his GPA. Now it seems that he is all set to not only graduate, but to head to college.
In order to further his education, Barker plans to attend Ball State university. He is considering a career in the chemistry and pharmaceutical fields.
Academic subjects play a very large part in Barker’s life, even outside of high school. Several of his hobbies not only integrate them, but are based entirely on them. He is a member the school’s spell bowl team, and has recently joined the mock trial team.
Barker’s skill sets are not limited strictly to academics though. He is also a merit scout, and possesses nearly 20 merit badges.
He also enjoys movies. Barker considers himself something of a movie fanatic and is willing to give films of almost all genres a go, no matter how awful they are.
Overall, he presents himself as an accepting and kind person, influencing many with his upbeat attitude. Junior Isaac Hathaway, who considers James to be a close friend, says, “He is very understanding, funny, nice and smart.”
He has even caught the praise of David Winters, who was his middle school English teacher. “I think the best thing I can say about Jamie is that I don’t recall ever having to reprimand him for any misbehavior during the entire 180 days he was in my class. That’s pretty rare for a 13-year-old boy.”
It is through both his successes and failures that Barker improves himself, never giving up. The most important thing to take from his lessons is that you don’t have to perfect to be a model student.