Eighth-grader
Channing Hunter is studying three different foreign languages
this year. And he's got a very practical reason for taking
up his third, German.
The 13-year-old from Belleville, IL, said
he hopes to become a pediatrician when he grows up. And
German is a widely accepted primary language of medicine.
He said, "Many of the American medical texts
are translations from German. This way, I'll be able to
go to the original text when I'm studying medicine."
(This article is the first profile of elementary
and middle school kids who were named last month as 2008
Gateway Young Achievers of the Year. This is the first of
seven profiles which will be published this year.
(The Gateway Young Achievers are selected
for their accomplishments in school and in their communities.
Each YA winner is awarded a $1,000 savings bond and is automatically
entered in the national YA competition.)
As the other Young Achievers, Channing is
a top student in school. He attends Governor French Academy,
a K-12 private school in Belleville.
He has a well-rounded life in the community.
Channing is a black belt in karate, having
finished 3rd in the 2008 USA National Federation Finals
in Houston, TX. He takes lessons at Family Martial Arts
in Belleville.
He's also an accomplished pianist. He's taken
lessons since 2001. He studies classical, contemporary,
spiritual and other piano styles from Jeff Taylor of O'Fallon,
IL.
Besides performing in recitals, Channing also
volunteers to play piano for residents of the Cambridge
House Assisted Living facility in O'Fallon, IL.
These musical performances have a special
meaning for Channing. The woman who cared for him when he
was a baby is now a resident at the facility. He calls her
"Grandma" although she isn't a blood relative.
He looks at this as a way to pay her back
for all the good care she gave while he was growing up.
He also competes on his school's soccer and
chess teams.
Governor French's soccer team competes against
other private schools in both Illinois and Missouri.
Channing has participated in the 2008 Association
of Bright Learners Education at Southwestern Illinois College
in Belleville. He also was a Math Counts participant at
Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville, IL.
He also placed first in the Governor French
Academy 2008 Science Fair and received a gold medal for
excellence in the regional competition at SIUE.
His experiment involved testing the memory
capacity of youngsters 10, 11, 12 and 13 years of age at
his school. The kids read some written material and then
were tested on what they could remember.
The kids were tested on their ability to remember
words as well as random letters and numbers. Channing said
the memory capacity got higher as the kids got older.
In his language studies, Channing started
with Spanish when he was in first grade.
His study of Mandarin Chinese is more complicated
because the Chinese don't use an alphabet as we do in English
and other romance languages. Also, the Chinese characters
are written much differently.
And his study of German also has some extras.
For one thing, Channing is not only a student
but also serves as teacher to five other kids when the regular
German teacher can't teach their class.
One of their recent projects involved preparing
for an upcoming visit to a nearby German restaurant. Channing
and the other students did all of their ordering in German.
Channing expects his participation in karate
to be a lifelong activity.
He got his first black belt two years ago.
He was scheduled to be tested for his 1st
degree black belt late last month. That is the first of
what is a total of 10 degrees, earned as you get more proficient.
Channing said, "You earn the 10th degree when
you die."
He said he's interested in karate for more
than the physical activities.
"You also learn discipline and self control,
which you can use throughout your life," he said.
Asked how he's used those principles so far,
he said, "I don't get as mad at my sister as I used to."
His sister, Abril, is 8 and he says that a sister five years
younger can be a trial at times.
Channing's dad, Leon, is in sales and marketing
for a Swiss agricultural firm named Syngenta.
That business affiliation resulted in Channing
having a unique experience. For three years, he took part
in a program at the University of Missouri-Columbia entitled
Exposing Students to Agriculture.
The program at the Bradford Agronomy Research
Center gave city kids like Channing an inside look at today's
agriculture.
