By Allison Ringold
Meet Pioneer senior, Chris Akey, some of you might already know him because he’s involved in so many things going on at Pioneer high school.
Chris is in Pioneer’s Symphony band, the most advanced band at Pioneer. This is no small feat as Pioneer’s music program, according to news.a2schools.org, has been awarded the GRAMMY Signature School Gold award a total of eight times, with the most recent award happening in 2015. This ranks the program as one of the best music programs in the country.Individually, Akey has also excelled in his performance abilities. For example in 2017, in article from news.a2schools.org, Akey is listed as receiving a “ ‘I’ (excellent)” rating on a solo performance at the Michigan School Band and Orchestra Association (MSBOA)’s District Solo and Ensemble Festival.
In addition to excelling in his musical abilities, Akey is also currently in Student Council. According to Pioneer’s Student Council's website (www.pihistudentcounsil.com), Akey is serving as both the “Treasurer” and “Webmaster” for the Student Council this year.
Akey also gets high praise from his teachers. According to his math teacher, Lori DiVirgilio, “He is always striving to have students participate in school activities.” She goes on to tell a story about how Akey worked hard to get his classmates to participate in the Principal’s Cup last year. “You've seen him at Pep-Assemblies,” DiVirgilio said, “he exudes enthusiasm and school spirit.” In addition to his school spirit, she also said Akey is a good student. “It's a privilege to have such a dedicated math student in my class,” said DiVirgilio. His teacher in band, David Leach, seems to agree.“It’s one of the most uplifting parts of teaching to find someone of Chris’ caliber,” he said. Leach goes on to talk about how friendly Akey acts in class. “He high fives all of his DMC colleagues, he high fives me, he high fives people,” he said.
Given all of the activities Akey is involved in, one would think he would be taking a lighter course load his senior year. However, this is not the case as Akey, when asked to list his courses this year, Akey said he’s taking AP Physics, World Literature, Spanish 3 AC, AP calculus BC, Current History and AP Psychology all this year. Doing this type of course load isn’t very common for seniors. According to a New York Times Article entitled, “How Schools are Trying to Avoid the ‘Senior Slide’”, for some senior year isn’t as productive as it should be, and for Akey with all of his extracurricular activities one could understand if he chose a lighter course load.
So why is he taking so many AC and AP classes? According to Akey his motivations are clear: he wants to go to the University of Michigan. “At first I was thinking about not taking a science and social studies class senior year,” Akey said. “But then I went to the college visit for the U of M when they came [to Pioneer] because I want to go to the U of M, and they said they want four years of each of the core subjects and that they want you to do more than what the state requires...that’s what made me decide to continue doing science and social studies [in my senior year]: to make my application look strong.”
So while Akey is working on his college applications, no one knows for sure what the final outcome will be, but Chris Akey is a determined and involved Pioneer high school senior ,maintaining a high academic load, while also excelling in the arts and student organizations.
Meet Pioneer senior, Chris Akey, some of you might already know him because he’s involved in so many things going on at Pioneer high school.
Chris is in Pioneer’s Symphony band, the most advanced band at Pioneer. This is no small feat as Pioneer’s music program, according to news.a2schools.org, has been awarded the GRAMMY Signature School Gold award a total of eight times, with the most recent award happening in 2015. This ranks the program as one of the best music programs in the country.Individually, Akey has also excelled in his performance abilities. For example in 2017, in article from news.a2schools.org, Akey is listed as receiving a “ ‘I’ (excellent)” rating on a solo performance at the Michigan School Band and Orchestra Association (MSBOA)’s District Solo and Ensemble Festival.
In addition to excelling in his musical abilities, Akey is also currently in Student Council. According to Pioneer’s Student Council's website (www.pihistudentcounsil.com), Akey is serving as both the “Treasurer” and “Webmaster” for the Student Council this year.
Akey also gets high praise from his teachers. According to his math teacher, Lori DiVirgilio, “He is always striving to have students participate in school activities.” She goes on to tell a story about how Akey worked hard to get his classmates to participate in the Principal’s Cup last year. “You've seen him at Pep-Assemblies,” DiVirgilio said, “he exudes enthusiasm and school spirit.” In addition to his school spirit, she also said Akey is a good student. “It's a privilege to have such a dedicated math student in my class,” said DiVirgilio. His teacher in band, David Leach, seems to agree.“It’s one of the most uplifting parts of teaching to find someone of Chris’ caliber,” he said. Leach goes on to talk about how friendly Akey acts in class. “He high fives all of his DMC colleagues, he high fives me, he high fives people,” he said.
Given all of the activities Akey is involved in, one would think he would be taking a lighter course load his senior year. However, this is not the case as Akey, when asked to list his courses this year, Akey said he’s taking AP Physics, World Literature, Spanish 3 AC, AP calculus BC, Current History and AP Psychology all this year. Doing this type of course load isn’t very common for seniors. According to a New York Times Article entitled, “How Schools are Trying to Avoid the ‘Senior Slide’”, for some senior year isn’t as productive as it should be, and for Akey with all of his extracurricular activities one could understand if he chose a lighter course load.
So why is he taking so many AC and AP classes? According to Akey his motivations are clear: he wants to go to the University of Michigan. “At first I was thinking about not taking a science and social studies class senior year,” Akey said. “But then I went to the college visit for the U of M when they came [to Pioneer] because I want to go to the U of M, and they said they want four years of each of the core subjects and that they want you to do more than what the state requires...that’s what made me decide to continue doing science and social studies [in my senior year]: to make my application look strong.”
So while Akey is working on his college applications, no one knows for sure what the final outcome will be, but Chris Akey is a determined and involved Pioneer high school senior ,maintaining a high academic load, while also excelling in the arts and student organizations.