Super Kid: Dineh Judd, Marysville Pilchuck senior

Q: What classes are you taking?

A: I'm in Running Start. I take three classes at Everett Community College: nutrition, French and music theory. Here (at Marysville Pilchuck) I'm taking sports and entertainment marketing, and I volunteer with the special education groups almost every day.

Q: Is this your first year volunteering with the groups?

A: No, I did it last year, too, but this year I'm not getting school credit.

Q: What do you do?

A: I go into Mr. Price's room and I play music for them, read, hang out and keep them entertained.

Q: What instrument do you play?

A: I play acoustic guitar, and I sing and compose music. I mostly compose on my computer. I've taken guitar classes at school, and last year when I was volunteering, I brought my guitar and played for one of the (special education) students.

I was just strumming lower notes so he could feel vibrations, and he put his head on the body of the guitar and looked so happy. It was the greatest thing ever.

Q: That must have been a moment.

A: It definitely was. I started thinking maybe I want to do music therapy or something like that.

Q: When you write your own music, do you add lyrics?

A: Yeah, sometimes. I play a lot of different styles.

Q: How long have you been playing and writing your own music?

A: I started playing piano when I was 5, so I've read music all my life. I didn't play piano that long, maybe until I was 10, and then I was in band at 10th Street Middle School and I played clarinet there. In high school, I started playing guitar.

Q: Are you involved in any other musical outlets in the community?

A: Yes. Over the summer, myself and a couple friends said, 'We're tired of there not being a music scene in Marysville,' so we started a music festival called M.O.M. Fest, Musicians of Marysville Festival. It was at the Boys & Girls club in mid-August.

Q: How'd that go?

A: It was really fun. It was 20 bands. We had bands come from Vancouver, B.C., and Bellingham, and lots of local bands, too. I think we did a pretty good job, considering we only had two months to plan it.

Q: Just two months?

A: Yes, we were talking to the city about it, and they said it usually takes six months to a year to plan, and we were like, whatever, we're going to get it done, and we did.

Q: Did you play your music at the festival?

A: I didn't play. I don't play publicly. My personal music thing is just learning about it. I don't perform.

Q: Are you going to do the festival again next summer?

A: Possibly. One of my friends who did it goes to the University of Washington now and another is on a mission in Russia. Then a lot of people graduated and moved away. But if we have the resources to do it, we definitely want to try to do it again.

Q: If you do it again is there something you'd like to see change?

A: We've talked with the city about using Jennings Park instead and possibly merging it with an upcoming film festival between Arlington and (Marysville) Getchell High School. It was only suggested. If we do plan for next year, we probably won't start until January.

Q: How many songs have you written?

A: Too many. I have so many unfinished songs, just notebooks filled. I have only a handful of finished songs because I get frustrated. If I sat down and did it, then I'd have plenty of songs, but I don't really have time right now.

Q: Do you ever envision your songs being sung on the big stage?

A: No, it's really personal. If I end up being a rock star that's cool, but I'm not going to pursue it.

Q: Have you started thinking about what you want to do after you graduate?

A: I'm going to take a year off, and then after that it kind of depends on how things go. I want to apply to Columbia College in Chicago and maybe NYU.

The thing is that those are prestigious colleges and I haven't really had time to perfect my SAT scores or apply for all the scholarships or make my essays strong for applications so I just don't feel I'm ready. So the next year I'll work, save money, and write essays.