Hayes’ Jackson eager to take her talent to next stage

Hayes High School’s Lizzi Jackson

Story and photo by

BRECK J. HAPNER

Delaware Hayes senior Eliz­a­beth ‘Lizzi’ Jack­son read­ily admits how large a part music and the the­ater play in her cur­rent life but makes no secret she nurses a future pas­sion to become a child life psychologist.

Although these pur­suits sound some­what anti­thet­i­cal, they are key ele­ments in Lizzi’s quest for per­sonal expres­sion and con­tin­ued development.

“I will always keep singing and per­form­ing,” Lizzi said, “because I love to express who I am while shar­ing with oth­ers in the com­mu­nity. In a sim­i­lar sense, I am inter­ested in psy­chol­ogy because I am fas­ci­nated by the way the brain works and how we inter­act with soci­ety,” she said.

Lizzi’s many activ­i­ties illus­trate her pen­chant for expres­sion, per­for­mance and com­mu­ni­ca­tion. She is a mem­ber of the Delaware Hayes Sym­phonic Choir, a group selected through audi­tion only. The choir works for at least one hour daily, hon­ing vocal skills used when com­pet­ing against other schools. Lizzi is also involved with the Hayes Singers, a smaller group of 25 stu­dents selected directly from the Sym­phonic Choir by audi­tion. The Hayes Singers, unlike the choir, sing med­leys and also engage in chore­o­graphed dance, per­form­ing at the Delaware Hayes spring/fall con­certs and through­out the Delaware com­mu­nity dur­ing hol­i­days. She also works with the Hayes Play­ers, a group of selec­tive orches­tra stu­dents who offer more chal­leng­ing pieces, break­ing up into quar­tets indulging in com­mu­nity gigs.

“I started singing in the choir around sixth grade,” Lizzi said. “I am really con­nected to performance-based music, ven­tur­ing into the com­mu­nity, pro­vid­ing enter­tain­ment. It has been a good experience.”

Delaware Hayes Choir Direc­tor Dara Gillis said that Lizzi is orga­nized and conscientious.

“In her role of pres­i­dent of the Hayes Singers, Lizzi has taken charge of the com­mu­ni­ca­tion and assisted with pub­lic­ity for the group,” Gillis said. “She often sees and con­quers tasks that need to be com­pleted before I have a chance to ask her. She is the kind of stu­dent that leads by exam­ple and is always will­ing to help in what­ever way she can.”

Per­haps most impor­tant to Lizzi is her involve­ment with the Ohio Music Edu­ca­tion Asso­ci­a­tion (OMEA) Solo and Ensem­ble Adju­di­cated Event, a school choir and orches­tra con­test draw­ing musi­cal groups from all over Ohio.

“We per­form and are judged pro­fes­sion­ally, com­pet­ing for the pres­tige offered. It is a great way to enhance skills and receive impor­tant feed­back,” Lizzi said.

Delaware Hayes Orches­tra Direc­tor Stacy Lemke remem­bers Lizzi as an excel­lent music student.

“Lizzi not only has nat­ural music abil­ity but she pos­sesses an amaz­ing work ethic,” Lemke said. “She is always pre­pared with a pos­i­tive attitude.”

For Lizzi, the­ater is just a nat­ural exten­sion of her singing inter­ests. She is a mem­ber of the Delaware Hayes Thes­pian Troupe as a stage per­former in the annual win­ter play while singing, danc­ing and act­ing in the yearly spring musical.

“I have already done three shows at Hayes,” Lizzi said, “and this year will be my fourth. The stage will always remain a big part of who I am.”

Delaware Hayes math­e­mat­ics teacher Kath­leen Kraus said Lizzi loves stage per­for­mance and the­ater arts, ded­i­cat­ing her­self to por­tray­ing her char­ac­ter in such a way that she trans­forms the stage.

“As a junior, Eliz­a­beth was in my pre-calculus class. She is a gen­uine, artis­tic, and opti­mistic young woman full of pos­i­tive energy.”

The trauma brought by the death of a cousin from a drug over­dose pro­vided Lizzi the impe­tus to become involved in com­mu­nity activ­i­ties out­side of per­form­ing. As a fresh­man, she was intro­duced to the Delaware County Stand Up Lead­er­ship Team, a local orga­ni­za­tion encour­ag­ing a drug-free, healthy lifestyle. She has been with the team ever since.

“I have seen what drugs can do to peo­ple and fam­i­lies,” Lizzi said. “I was happy to work with the Stand Up team because they are encour­ag­ing peo­ple to make the right choices while spread­ing that mes­sage to the community.”

Through the aid of a Stand Up Lead­er­ship Team direc­tor, Lizzi sub­se­quently devel­oped a media lit­er­acy work­shop for mid­dle and high school teens. The work­shop addresses unhealthy mes­sages pre­sented via the media about appear­ance and body image. Dur­ing the last three lead­er­ship retreats, Lizzi has worked to edu­cate teens about belief in self and deal­ing with esteem issues through slide show pre­sen­ta­tions, videos and rig­or­ous discussion.

“We had many peo­ple tell us the work­shop influ­enced them to want to make a dif­fer­ence with their lives,” Lizzi said.

Always busy, Lizzi works part-time as a babysit­ter, dog sit­ter and house sit­ter. She also teaches pri­vate vio­lin lessons twice weekly.

“A job teaches respon­si­bil­ity and offers the pos­i­tive effects of com­mu­ni­ca­tion and net­work­ing,” Lizzi said.

Lizzie wants to attend a four-year uni­ver­sity in the Chicago area, prefer­ably Loy­ola or North­west­ern, seek­ing a cer­tifi­cate degree in child life psy­chol­ogy. She plans to con­tinue her involve­ment in music and the­ater through extracur­ric­u­lar per­for­mance groups and has signed on with the John Casablan­cas tal­ent agency in Chicago.

“I want to see where I can go in the enter­tain­ment indus­try through the tal­ent agency but my heart lies with child psy­chol­ogy,” Lizzi said. “I want to work with chil­dren in hos­pi­tals and help them get through trau­matic sit­u­a­tions and over­come struggles.”

Lizzi acknowl­edges that she is grow­ing pro­gres­sively more sen­ti­men­tal about Hayes, know­ing it is her last year. Although a strug­gle, she is deal­ing with seniori­tis by focus­ing on main­tain­ing a high GPA in her chal­leng­ing classes while main­tain­ing a clear vision of her goal.

“I can’t wait to go to col­lege and become inde­pen­dent. This is an oppor­tu­nity I have been look­ing for­ward to, spread­ing my wings,” Lizzi said. “I will miss high school but will take all the good mem­o­ries with me as I dis­cover myself and the world around me.”

Eliz­a­beth is the daugh­ter of Jen­nifer and Mark Jack­son of Delaware.

Posted by Breck Hapner on Feb 1 2013. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.