Whiz Kid: Colleen Garrison

Patch Whiz Kid of the Week: Colleen Garrison           

Whiz Kid’s Age: 15

Whiz Kid’s Grade: Freshman                       

Whiz Kid’s School: Absegami High School

Whiz Kid’s Accomplishment: Colleen Garrison is a straight-A student who will be taking three sophomore courses during her freshman year at Absegami.

Whiz Kid’s Keys to Awesomeness:

Her mother is a retired business teacher and her father is a drama teacher at Absegami High School, so Colleen Garrison can’t help but be dedicated to getting good grades in school.

She even tells her supervisors when she participates in one of her numerous extracurricular activities that before she gets started for the day, she needs to get her homework finished and get some studying in. She also makes it clear that if her grades begin to suffer, she needs to focus on them and return when those grades return to normal.

As a straight-A student who will take three sophomore courses during her freshman year at Absegami High School, it’s not likely Garrison has ever had that problem.

“I care deeply about my grades,” Garrison said. “ … I put grades before anything else.”

She is a straight-A student taking Honors courses, and her three sophomore courses will include Geology, Biology and Spanish 2.

While she has an obvious respect for grades given the profession both her parents have taken up, Garrison decided that’s not the profession for her. Instead, it is her goal to become a neurologist or a cardiologist.

“I love what they do and they inspire me,” Garrison said of her parents. “ … I think it’s amazing how the body works. I’m so fascinated by it.”

Her parents were surprised she wanted to go into the medical field, and they’ve been stressing to her the importance of building her resume at this point in time.

“We’re both teachers and we see where the end of the road is,” Colleen’s dad, Chip Garrison said. “You know how difficult it will be to get into a good medical school. Her grades have to be top notch. … We want her to get the opportunities in life to do the things she wants to do.”

This is why Colleen Garrison puts her grades before anything else, and she has a long line of interests forming behind those grades.

The interests include dancing, playing soccer, performing in the Marching Band, drama and acting, singing, piano lessons and choir. She has been pegged to participate in the Select Choir in high school.

“It’s singing in a choir that is more musically trained,” Colleen Garrison said. “I love doing it and I was happy when I was selected.”

Garrison played Golde in the Once Upon a Time Players’ production of Fiddler on the Roof, and this summer, she went behind the scenes to act as a stage manager for “A Chorus Line.”

“I’d rather be out there on stage,” Garrison concluded. “I really love it. I love working on the set, but I love music. That’s what inspires me.”

For everything she does, Garrison knows when enough is enough. She was a Girl Scout, but decided she had too much on her plate, and left the scouts.

“We are both very proud of her,” Chip Garrison said of he and his wife, Lois. “She’s definitely got her head on straight, but what makes her special is how much she cares.”

As a student at Galloway Township Middle School, her teacher, Patty Yamaguchi, thought enough of Colleen to ask her to help with a class of students with learning disabilities.

“She’s known Colleen all her life and she knew she’d be a good role model,” Chip Garrison said.

And now Colleen Garrison is preparing for her next step: the move to high school.

“I’m nervous for freshman year,” Colleen Garrison said. “It’s a new step. I know the school like the back of my hand (because of the plays she’s been in), but this is different. It’s a big step up. I’m nervous about how I’m going to adapt.

“The kids who know me have been telling me I can handle it.”

Editor’s Note:

Although the school year is over, there are still plenty of Whiz Kids out there waiting to be recognized. Little leaguers, travel teams, summer camps, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, students who were overlooked during the school year and those making general contributions to the community are all potential Whiz Kids.

Send recommendations to Anthony.Bellano@patch.com.