David Thomas Ward

Seaside High

Continuing education: I will be going to Oregon State University to study forest and civil engineering.

Community/school involvement: National Honor Society, Key Club, Snow Club, Sophomore Class treasurer.

Senior project: My Pacifica Project was volunteering for Surfing the Nations with two of my classmates, Sonny Davis and Christian Anderson. Surfing the Nations is a nonprofit humanitarian organization based in Wahiawa, Hawaii, on the island of Oahu. They have both a strong presence on the island, as well as a very successful international department. While we were there, we got to volunteer with their Feeding the Hungry program, an after school mentor and tutorship program for at-risk youth called Ulu Pono, and many other various service projects around the property and surrounding communities.

Scholarships: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Medal Award, Elks 2014 MVS Scholarship,Vance and Dorothy Shugart Memorial Scholarship, Oregon Forest Industries Council Scholarship, OSU Academic Achievement Award.

Sports: Varsity soccer (2010-2014), Varsity football (2014), basketball (2010), varsity swimming (2011-2014), varsity track and field (2011-12, 2014), dance team (2013).

Favorite class and teacher: My favorite class and favorite teacher, by far, was my chemistry class sophomore year taught by Mr. Johnson. I had a lot of friends in that class, and everyone had at least some degree of measurable intelligence (does that sound rude?), so we were able to progress far in the class and we learned a lot. Really any class I had with Mr. Johnson is in the running for a favorite, like marine biology and stream ecology. Not only was he my favorite teacher, but also one of my favorite coaches as well (he was one of my soccer coaches).

What will you remember most? In terms of actual school, not much really. I can barely remember first term, let alone any of the previous years. Mostly Ill remember the times outside of the classroom. Ill remember the memories I made with my friends, and all of the fun, indelible mischief we got into. You know, teenager stuff.

Advice for success: The biggest piece of advice I would give is absolutely do not procrastinate, that will ruin you. A second piece of advice would be dont let yourself get too stressed. You have to find a good, reliable, healthy stress reliever that can take your mind off things when youre feeling overwhelmed. Otherwise the stress just makes you freak out, and then you become unproductive because youre freaking out so much, and then you start to break out, and it is just a bad downward spiral from there. Just dont stress out.