An OPUS scholar

Shanelle Williams was 11 years old when she found a battered, old violin in the basement of her grandmother's house. 

Fixing the violin--together with a lot of hard work and practice--has earned Shanelle a full academic scholarship to Thomas Jefferson School in south St. Louis County. 

Shanelle said, "About all that was left of the old violin was the wood. I had to get just about everything else new. It had belonged to one of my aunts." 

Before the violin, Shanelle's musical activity consisted of "about six months of piano lessons." 

She started playing with the orchestra at McKinley Elementary School in north St. Louis County. She moved on the Normandy Middle School and worked with the orchestra director Deborah Antoine. 

Her conductor recognized Shanelle's musical talent and gave her extra lessons. Then, at age 15, Shanelle began private lessons with noted teacher Lucia P. May. 

Shanelle said she likes best "romantic, expressive" music, such as by composer Franz Schubert. 

In 1999, she was selected to play during KFUO's "Young Heroes in Music" (FM99.1) concert. The program gives young African-American musicians a chance to play before a live audience as well as being broadcast.

The station also sponsors the OPUS scholarship. That's given to an African-American youngster. Now 17, Shanelle has started her junior year at the school.

Shanelle has graduated from her aunt's old violin. But she had a recent scare with the new one. In June, her home in Normandy was heavily damaged in a fire. Although no one was injured, her 100-year-old Chanot violin came close to being destroyed.

"I told the firemen to rescue my violin and they did," she said. The fire burned about half of the house and the rest had heavy smoke damage. 

Shanelle will be playing later this month in a 5th anniversary "Young Heroes in Music" concert. She plans to invite the firemen who saved her violin to the concert. 

Despite her musical success, Shanelle doesn't think she'll pursue a musical career after school. "Maybe I'll do something part-time," she said.

She has her heart set on being a special agent for the FBI. 

She's an Explore Cadet with the police department of the north county community of Beverly Hills. She wears a uniform and goes with the regular officers on patrol and investigations. She also has directed traffic. 

Recently, she and other regular officers searched a vacant house, looking for drugs. She worked with the department's "sniffer dogs." 

After Thomas Jefferson School, Shanelle said she'd like to go either to the University of Indiana or Washington University. From there, she wants to go to training with the FBI. 

"I like law enforcement but I don't want to be a police officer," she said. 

In high school, she stays on campus for five days. Then, she can go home on weekends. Concerning campus life, Shanelle said, "I'm used to it. I've gone to music camp in the summer at Indiana University." 

For anyone interested in Thomas Jefferson School, you can visit their website at www.tjs.org.

Shanelle has three sisters. She's the second oldest. Her parents are Rosiland Jackson and Michael Williams.