Big Walnut’s Painter ready for change

Big Wal­nut High School’s Abi­gail Painter

Story and photo by

LIZ ROBERTSON

With her senior year hit­ting the halfway mark, Big Walnut’s Abi­gail Painter is ready for high school to be over and for col­lege to begin.

“I’ve been in high school too long. It’s the same rou­tine over and over again. I like change,” she said.

Abi­gail has attended the school dis­trict since kinder­garten while liv­ing in the same house.

“I feel like liv­ing here my whole life, I’m ready to get out,” she said, adding that while she will def­i­nitely miss home and the area, “I’m ready to start some­thing new.”

New for Abi­gail will be study­ing to become a bio­med­ical engi­neer. She has applied to seven schools and has not decided which she’ll attend. Her top two choices are Case West­ern Reserve Uni­ver­sity and Van­der­bilt University.

Abi­gail is con­sid­er­ing going to med­ical school once she has her under­grad­u­ate degree.

“It depends on whether I am tired of school or want to go on,” she said. “I’ll see where every­thing takes me in the future.”

Abi­gail said as a bio­med­ical engi­neer, she can con­duct research or make med­ical machines. If she goes on to med­ical school, she is inter­ested in dermatology.

Abi­gail said she decided on her career path after look­ing at her col­lege options.

“My pas­sions are math and sci­ence; math is my favorite sub­ject so I wanted some­thing with a lot of math,” she said.

Sci­ence teacher Nadine Adams said, “Abby’s gifts include her sci­ence and math skills. Although I’ve had her in three sci­ence courses and she’s always at the top of her class, she has not nearly reached her poten­tial in high school. I am excited for her to go to col­lege and excel in these areas and have the suc­cess pro­fes­sion­ally that I know she will have.”

This year Abi­gail is tak­ing advanced place­ment cal­cu­lus, advanced place­ment lit­er­a­ture and com­po­si­tion, gov­ern­ment, advanced place­ment chem­istry, Span­ish IV hon­ors and anatomy.

Last fall, Abi­gail went on the school’s marine biol­ogy trip to Andrus Island in the Bahamas. Over the sum­mer, she became scuba certified.

“It was a really good expe­ri­ence I can take with me,” she said. “It’s just a dif­fer­ent way to get education.”

Math teacher Kather­ine Daw­son had Abi­gail in her pre-calculus class her junior year and in advanced place­ment cal­cu­lus AB this year. Abi­gail is a mem­ber of the school’s math honor soci­ety and helps tutor oth­ers, Daw­son said.

“Abby is a well-spoken young lady and will be suc­cess­ful at the col­le­giate level. She works well with oth­ers and can see the big pic­ture in math­e­mat­ics. When given the oppor­tu­nity, Abby can think ‘out­side of the box.’”

Daw­son added that Abi­gail has dis­played her lead­er­ship skills both in sports and through var­i­ous school clubs and groups.

Among the school clubs and activ­i­ties that keep her busy are Big Broth­ers Big Sis­ters, Leo Club and Eagles First Flight. She is also sec­re­tary of her class, hav­ing served as vice pres­i­dent both her sopho­more and junior year.

In past years, she also did choir and stu­dent council.

Abi­gail typ­i­cally does her vol­un­teer work through Leo Club, help­ing at Break­fast with Santa and the Christ­mas tree sale as well as at the humane society.

“I’m like one of those peo­ple, the busier I am, the more pro­duc­tive I am,” she said.

Even dur­ing her busy vol­ley­ball sea­son, Abi­gail has no prob­lem keep­ing up with school work, she said.

“Now that vol­ley­ball is over, work keeps me busy, oth­er­wise, I would be tak­ing lots of naps,” she said, laughing.

Abi­gail has played vol­ley­ball since the fifth grade, play­ing both club and at school so she had been play­ing year round. She decided to take this com­ing spring off from the sport.

She also works at a local pizza place.

“I’ve been there a bit over a year,” she said, adding that now that vol­ley­ball is over, she is work­ing two to four days a week.

Before this job, she worked at a coun­try club in the sum­mer of 2011 and over the past hol­i­day break, in addi­tion to the restau­rant, Abi­gail also worked at a retail cloth­ing store.

“I like to stay busy,” she said.

She said she may play vol­ley­ball at Case-Western, but if she attends one of the larger schools, she would do intramurals.

Dur­ing her junior year, the vol­ley­ball team went to the state tournament.

“I got to learn lead­er­ship skills from the seniors that year,” she said.

This year, the vol­ley­ball team went to dis­trict semis.

Abi­gail also played soft­ball since she was five up until the eighth grade.

“Once I played vol­ley­ball, I loved it more,” she said.

With her high school career end­ing soon, Abi­gail said she is excited for more time with friends, prom, grad­u­a­tion and her grad­u­a­tion party.

She offers the fol­low­ing advice to underclassmen.

“Def­i­nitely don’t take it as a joke,” she said of high school. “You have to work hard. And as a senior, do not be influ­enced to take easy classes, but still chal­lenge yourself.”

Abi­gail is the daugh­ter of Scott Painter and Mick­ell Wal­lace of Sunbury.

Posted by Liz Robertson on Jan 18 2013. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.