Updated: Patch Whiz Kid of the Week: Allison Wilke

Name: Allison Wilke 17, of Canton

Grade: Senior

School:

Accomplishment: Wilke is one of nine Plymouth-Canton Community Schools students who took honors at Michigan Association of Broadcasters at the Great Lakes Broadcasting Conference in March. She won first place for community affairs reporting for a story on the Plymouth marching band featuring an interview with Plymouth-Canton marching band director Sheldon Frazier. Second-place broadcasting awards went to Plymouth junior Kyle Linford (aircheck); Plymouth senior Allison Korte (station activities report); and Salem senior John Bonello (sports play-by-play). Salem sophomore Mason Mills earned two honorable mentions (sports play-by-play) with one each going to Salem junior Gabe Martin, Salem senior Tom Halling and Plymouth senior Derek Harbison (all for promotional announcements.

“Our students do some amazing work.  I’m so proud to see them receive this recognition,” said station manager Bill Keith in a statement announcing the awards.

WSDP-FM 88.1, owned and operated by the Plymouth-Canton Community Schools, is staffed by students from Canton, Plymouth and Salem high schools. Students at Canton, Plymouth and Salem High Schools serve as staff members.

Key to Awesomeness: It may be humility. “I work really hard, I don’t really know if I’m awesome,” she said. After moving to Canton from Oswego, IL, during the last school year, Wilke got interested in WSDP. This year she and classmate Chris Cook co-host “Taste of Europe,” a music show which airs from 6 to 8 p.m. each Monday. On Tuesdays from 4 to 5:30 p.m., Wilke has her own show devoted to alternative music – and she’s a very big fan of music, having studied flute for six years.

Wilke spends so much time at the station said her mom, Deborah Wilke, “it’s like her second home.”

Allison’s award-winning radio project started out as a marching band report for WDSP’s Newsfile show. But her instructors encouraged her to expand on the story.

“I spent a lot of time in studio trying to perfect it. I talked to a lot of people and got a lot of feedback,” she said.

She seems to prefer the DJ role.

“I end up laughing a lot. It’s come to the point where I don’t have to try to think of what I have to say on the air. I can just be myself,” she said.

Her mother said Allison is tenacious, a great listeners and has a personality “that just draws people in. She has the ability to get people to talk.”

She’s also extremely focused on her goals. Her 3.4 grade-point average and her experience on a high school forensics team in Illinois and a debate team in Michigan bode well for her plans to attend Central Michigan University (perhaps to study broadcasting, she said). Allison’s decisions about her future, her mom said, will get the full support of family, which includes sister Jessica, 15, her mother’s fiancé, Tom Peleck and Allison’s dad, Edward Wilke.

As for her daughter’s first broadcasting award, Deborah Wilke said, “I couldn’t be more proud.”

Do you know a special young person in the community who deserves a round of applause for volunteering instead of playing video games after school? Or maybe your daughter's science club is trying to challenge the way we think about the energy crisis. Or maybe your son's lacrosse team won its first game in three years. Everyone deserves a little attention, and we want to tell these stories.

So e-mail your Whiz Kid nominations to Editor Jessica Nunez at Jessica.Nunez@patch.com. Please include the name, age, school, achievement and key to awesomeness, as well as a photo. Then come back every Wednesday for our Whiz Kid spotlight; you never know who will be up next.