Twelve-year-old
Olivia Martin has participated in and excelled at a wide
variety of school, church and community activities. But,
what she wants to do when she grows up is to build machinery.
Olivia was a 6th grader at the City Academy School in St.
Louis when she was picked as one of the 2009 Gateway Young
Achievers of the Year. She was selected for her outstanding
school work and outside activities.
Olivia
Martin |
When the 2009-10 school year starts this fall, she'll be
a 7th grader at MICD School. She plans to go there through
high school.
(Young
Saint Louis.com has followed the Gateway Young Achievers
program for several years. Each May, YSL.com publishes
the names of the year's winners.
(Then, in following months, we write profiles of the
elementary and middle school winners. The first 2009 profile
was last month. To read it, click
here. We will have additional profiles each of the
remaining months in 2009.)
Olivia and the other 2009 Gateway Young Achievers received
a $1,000 savings bond in recognition of their accomplishments
in school, in church and in extra-curricular activities.
Olivia
volunteering at an art festival |
Olivia's mother, Kendra Neely-Martin, has worked hard to
make sure her daughter gets experience in an especially
wide range of useful programs and activities. Olivia has
excelled in a number of them.
She said, "I'm busy pretty much every weekend."
But, she seems to thrive on both the amount and variety
of the activities.
The extra-curricular interests range from cultural activities
such as etiquette and dance lessons to hard-learning programs
such as science and math camps.
Olivia has decided she's most interested in activities
that allow her to build things. "I like math and science
and I like to draw. I want to go into engineering or architecture."
As a career, "I'd like to build useful machinery."
And she isn't worried about getting her hands dirty to
do the job.
Olivia
working on a science project. |
A number of the science camps she's taken part in involve
dissection of animals and fish. One of her favorites was
her work in earning a Florissant Valley Community College
science certificate.
In completing 11 different classes, she did a variety of
experiments, including dissecting sharks, pigs and squid.
She said the shark dissection included opening up the stomach
to find out about the animal's diet. She said, "The shark
had a lot of stones in its stomach."
She also took part in the St. Louis Science Center's Family
Medical School program. That included classes in labs at
the Washington University's Medical School and the SLU Physicians
and Mid-American Transplant Services.
At the SLU lab, she took part in a dissection of a lamb's
heart during the study of transplant surgery.
She also participated in robotics and aerospace camps at
the University of Missouri-Rolla.
In the robotics camp, she said, "We built and programmed
robots so they could operate on their own."
Felica A. Ezell from City Academy wrote a sponsoring letter
for Olivia. The teacher said, "Olivia expresses a strong
interest in math and science. She is intrigued by designs
and patterns, biology and solving mathematical equations."
Olivia earned the Dragon Math Award at City Academy. That
competition involved solving 60 questions in 30 minutes.
She got the highest number of correct answers.
She also was a member of the school's Brain Games Team
that competed in a regional competition that tested overall
knowledge.
She was involved in such organizations as the Delta Academy,
Jack and Jill of America and Sista Keepers. These were especially
targeted to African-American kids to help them learn more
about their heritage.
Olivia
at a Sistakeepers event |
For instance, the Delta Academy is run by a black sorority
and teaches the kids about black history and such religious
events as Kwansaa.
One of the other organizations on Olivia's list was the
4-H Club.
Usually 4-H is associated with rural areas and helps kids
get involved in farming. One of the highlights is the showing
of the kids' own home-raised livestock at their county fair.
Olivia said she didn't raise any cows or pigs. But, her
urban club did get them involved in helping with a community
garden project in the city.
Since she's been involved in dozens of different programs
and activities, she hasn't continued all of them. But, with
her move to MICD, she said she's going to restart some of
those in which she has a continuing interest.
For instance, she's going to again join the West African
dance activities at COCA in University City. "I'm going
to start again this summer and then continue during the
school year," she said.
She said she's also going to take part in summer theater
classes at COCA.
Olivia has set her educational goals pretty high. She said
she'd like to attend college at Princeton or Yale or at
Spellman University in Atlanta.
She'd study engineering or architecture. Then, she wants
a career that involves actually building things, especially
if it's useful machinery.
