Onondaga Central
Senior year can be the most memorable year of one’s life. It’s the end of one chapter of and the start of a new one. All your hard work has finally paid off, you’re graduating and on your way to pursuing your dreams. This edition of senior spotlight is featuring one outstanding senior, Ray Anderson. Ray Anderson has applied to and is interested in attending Albany College of Pharmacy, Wilkes University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and SUNY Buffalo. Ray wants to pursue a Doctor of Pharmacy degree. He wants to become a pharmacist for a great and very practical reason: “I want to be stable financially when I become older.” One may say money is not everything, but money is most definitely a necessity to live your life to its fullest. Ray participates in Cross Country, Basketball, and Track and Field. He is also involved in many extra curricular activities including: Recording Secretary of Student Council, Robotics and Eagle Scouts. In addition, Ray is the Senior Class President; a position he held in 7th, 8th, 10th, 11th and 12th grade. Some of Ray’s hobbies include being an avid coin collector and a dedicated runner. Ray’s greatest influence in his life are both of his Grandpas, who had the greatest impact on improving himself and his life. The other major impact on his life is his grandmother, known as “Gram,” who Ray says taught him strength. As a sophomore, Ray re-did the cross country course for his Eagle Scout Project. Becoming an Eagle Scout is a distinct honor achieved by very few people. Ray chose to re-do the course because he “wanted to give something back to the school and community that had done so much for me throughout my high school career.” Ray believes this community has helped him immensely in becoming the person he is today. To say thank you, he helped improve the Onondaga Cross Country course. The cross country course is used by both the Track and Cross Country Team. Track uses the new course for practices while the Cross Country Team can host meets using his course. The community is also always welcome to walk or run the course. Ray was faced with a choice to make when he was younger: to stick with Boy Scouts and go all the way and become an Eagle Scout, or to quit and not continue Boy Scouts. This decision would alter the entire course of his high school career and ultimately Ray’s character. Ray said, “When I was younger, I almost quit Boy Scouts because I was never with any of my friends. After completing my first year, I decided that I would either quit then and there, or I would do as much as I could with the program and obtain my Eagle Scout. I chose not to quit.” By not quitting, he went all the way and accomplished becoming an Eagle Scout. This was a huge accomplishment and being an Eagle Scout helped him greatly in his future endeavors. Ray joined Cub Scouts in second grade and by fifth grade he was a Boy Scout. Ray’s love for Cub Scouts grew as the years continued, especially as the years shifted into Boy Scouts and eventually becoming an Eagle Scout. This love of Cub Scouts as a young boy would change him and his life. Ray’s favorite sport is cross country. His all time favorite memory from cross country was going to the croc store in NYC with the cross country team and buying his crocs. His other all-time favorite memory was beating Ben in his Freshman year. Ray’s Cross Country team went to an invitational in Manhattan two seasons ago, where the team toured the cities, ate as a team, ran as a team, and even got crocs as team. Ray’s favorite high school memory was actually very recent, it was his Cross Country Senior Night. Senior Night for any athletic is a truly exciting night and maybe even bittersweet for some. His favorite year of high school was his Junior year because he was fond of all of his teachers. The thing Ray is going to miss the most about high school is seeing his friends. Ray’s advice to Freshman is “Try your hardest starting in 9th grade and it will pay dividends for you later.” Going to college can be scary because you do not know anybody and it can be a completely different community than what you recently lived in, but it can also be very exciting. Ray said he is most excited for “becoming a part of a new community and meeting new people.” College is a time to meet new people, discover the world, become the person you’ve been dreaming of, make new friends, see the world, and take advantage of the freedom you gain as you go into the real world. Ray Anderson is ready to take advantage of all these things. Good luck Ray!
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Tiger ProwlCurrent Editon Archives
October 2021
Categories |