Gateway Young Achievers

Success in a wide variety of classes, activities

Twelve-year-old Torey Dunlap already has tried four different sports. She's also won school awards in two different foreign languages.

The 7th grader at McKinley Classical Leadership Academy in the City of St. Louis also has won awards in art, music, science and math.

Torey said, "My parents put me in all sorts of different activities so I would have a lot of varied experiences." She said the many experiences help her choose which activities she wants to continue.

Her success in so many different fields helped her earn a 2008 Gateway Young Achievers award last spring. Each of the 10 winners received a $1,000 savings bond and was entered into the national Young Achiever competition.

The Young Achiever awards go to students who show achievement in school as well as outside activities.

(Young Saint Louis.com announced the winners last May. Then, YSL.com began a series of profiles of elementary and middle school winners. This profile is fifth. To read previous profiles, click on Past Stories at the top of the home page and go to June, July, August and September editions in 2008.)

Last year, as a 6th grader, Torey was picked for the Math Education for Gifted Secondary Students program. That course introduced her to such subjects as logic and reasoning.

It was in addition to her regular 6th grade math class. She's also won equations awards several times.

She also was in the Show Choir at the school and performed in a year-ending musical show at The Fox. Torey said the show, which features musical groups from all St. Louis Public Schools, was before her largest audience.

"The theater was pretty much filled," she said.

Earlier musical experiences included the violin, guitar and keyboarding. She said the violin lessons were in school. "But, my grandfather helped me with the guitar and the keyboard," she said.

Last year was her second in the Gulfport Junior Golf program at the Creve Coeur Golf Club.

Earlier, she played basketball in kindergarten, baseball in 1st grade and then two years of junior tennis at the Dwight Davis courts in nearby Forest Park.

She said, "Golf is my best sport." But, she said her golf game is helped by the experience from other sports.

"The other sports helped me control my hands. That helps me now have a good feel for the golf club when I play," she said.

In school, she's already taken two foreign languages. She won a French achievement award as a 1st grader and then a Spanish award as a 3rd grader.

She has exhibited art work at the St. Louis Art Museum and has won several science fair awards. One of them was a Greater St. Louis Science Fair first place ribbon when she was in 3rd grade.

Torey remembered that experiment. "We took swabs from peoples' mouths before and after brushing their teeth and also after rinsing with a mouthwash. Then, we cultured the swabs and tested for germs," she said.

She graduated from McKinley's elementary program last June. She's now in middle school at McKinley.

She said she also likes to do fund-raising projects to help various charities. In this, she said she's got a secret weapon: her father, Carlos.

"My sister and my cousins and I did a bake sale at school with proceeds to the American Cancer Society. We raised $80," she said. The hit of the bake sale were special-recipe chocolate chip cookies baked by her dad.

Mr. Dunlap said he got the original recipe from his grandmother. But, over the years, he's made some adjustments. He said, "I substituted almonds for the pecans. And then I added toffee chips for more crunch. They are the world's best chocolate chip cookies."

He said the success is due not only to the ingredients but the order in which they are added to the cookie mixture.

One constant among Torey's activities has been Girl Scouts. She started when she was in kindergarten and she's still a member.

One of her activities outside of school has been babysitting. She said she babysits for three families and is looking to take a course offered by a local hospital. The classes help kids learn how to handle emergencies, such as a health problem.

Torey said her favorite class in school is social studies. She said she likes that class because she gets to learn about other cultures and civilizations.

She said she was especially interested in studies of the Aztec and Mayan cultures of Central and South America.

Torey said, "Those cultures had codes and most of the keys were burned. But, some people have worked to decipher them so we can learn from them."

She hasn't decided as yet where she wants to go to college. But, she said, "I'll study something in the medical field." Her mother, Dr. Marsha Fisher is a doctor.

Torey said she wants to become a pediatric general surgeon. "I think that would be fun and a way to help other people," she said.