By Elaine Pool
Heidi is an excellent student; she reports that she has never gotten a grade below โBโ on her report cards.
What do you have when youโve got an 8thgrade girl with big and little brothers who loves math and loves music, and crafting? You have 13-year-old Heidi Johnson, SB Magazineโs public school Student of the Month. If she were middle-aged, one might call her a โRenaissance Person.โ Heidi volunteers in her churchโs preschool nursery during worship services andserves as a youth worker during Vacation Bible School in the summer; she loves working with children. She is a little on the fence about her career goals; she wavers between being a teacher or a veterinarian. She loves kids; she says kids have really big imaginations and will always talk to you; they will say anything that comes to mind. She is also a lover of all animals; currently, at home, she and her family have one dog, one chicken, and one lizard gecko.
Heidi loves being outdoors: hiking, riding bicycles, and playing tennis are some of her favorites. She feels she is the โglue of the family;โ if her brothers are fighting or arguing, sheโs the good middle point in the conflict. She likes crafting with anything she can find around the house and loves worship music and Taylor Swift; she is a self-described โSwiftie.โ Her favorite food is Fettuccine Alfredo, and her favorite candy is Twix; Heidi says she โgrew up on those.โ While she loves math now, this wasnโt always the case. It wasnโt until this school year that Heidi grew to love it, and she gives all the credit to her 8th-grade math teacher, Ms. Darlene Alexander.
She believes that Ms. Alexander is a really good teacher who makes the subject really enjoyable and fun. One way Ms. Alexander keeps her students motivated is by throwing kisses at them โ not the smoochy ones, of course; she throws Hersheyโs Kisses to her students when they get the right answer. Heidi is an excellent student; she reports that she has never gotten a grade below โBโ on her report cards.
Although sheโs not a big reader, Heidi will read a book that looks interesting; her favorite ones so far are the Hunger Games series. She will watch movies that look good, and she really likes watching movie trailers. She works on the school yearbook staff, helping sort photos and design page spreads.
The easiest thing about being in 8th grade, Heidi believes, is that the workload is much lighter this year. She feels that she has figured out how middle school works, and classes are a lot less stressful. The 8th graders have more free time, which takes a lot of weight off of their shoulders, she thinks. The hardest thing about 8th grade is that she and her friends will soon transition to high school. If her friends all go to different schools, Heidi is afraid of friendships splitting.
Heidi sees herself in future days either working with kids or animals. If given the choice, she would love to attend college in North Carolina; she fell in love with the area after a family vacation there. If she could go back and give her younger self any advice, Heidi said she would tell herself to work hard because it would pay off one day. Also, she would tell young Heidi not to trust her brother with all her secrets, lest he get mad and reveal them to anyone who will listen, not that she knows anything about that.
