MILL CREEK — Ashley Gillis, 18, is a senior at Jackson High School. She plans to be the first in her family to attend college. She wants to study neuroscience, particularly Alzheimer’s disease.
Question: What have your activities been in high school?
Answer: In freshman year, I was president of the French Club and I also did Student Congress. That’s really where my volunteering started. I then continued with Key Club and Honor Society later on … With Key Club, I am the leader of the random acts of kindness committee. With this comes a lot more volunteering. I try to just spread the kindness and do random acts of special things around the community, just to help one person’s life.
Q: Tell me about your volunteering outside of school.
A: I have worked with local organizations to feed the homeless of Seattle, one of those specific places being Tent City. I’ve also worked with local organizations doing homeless outreach drives and wrapping toys for children at Christmas.
Q: What are you looking forward to in the months ahead?
A: A group I’ve been working with for awhile now has a washing station set up for homeless on the street. Besides that, I’m just excited to round off the year. It’s been an exciting four years and it’s coming to a close, so it’s exciting and sad.
Q: If you could give yourself advice when you were a freshman, what would you say?
A: I would say I would be more involved in the school earlier. I would have done more things like leadership, like have more leadership roles in volunteering. I didn’t discover Key Club and Honor Society until later on and I fell in love with them, the impact you can make on people.
Q: Do you have plans for college?
A: I will be attending Washington State University in the fall. With that, I’m finishing up my AA. I’m hoping to transfer my credits that I have and I hope to study neuroscience. I’ve always wanted to study Alzheimer’s disease because it’s been very prominent in my family. We’ve lost quite a few family members. It’s stood out as something I’d like to prevent other families from having to deal with.
Q: What are you excited about for college?
A: It’s such an adventure. I’m excited to spread my wings and be on my own for the first time. I also hope to study abroad not only for my education but also to learn about other cultures.
Q: How did you pick science as a career path?
A: The start of freshman year, I had an extraordinary teacher, Mrs. (Sheryl) Mason, she really sparked my love for biology. That was my favorite class. I was always doing over and above. We also had a disease project that year and we got to pick whatever disease we wanted. Knowing that Alzheimer’s was something I’ve dealt with in the past, I decided to research that and that’s how I came into neuroscience. That’s how my two passions come together, my love for helping people and my love for bio. I’ve considered teaching or research. I’m not sure what I’ll do in the future.
Q: Do you work?
A: I have two part-time jobs. I clean an office for a company and I also work in the bakery at QFC. It takes a lot of planning with everything, but it works out.
Q: You did Running Start?
A: I am taking my last two classes and I will actually be graduating with my AA before high school (graduation).
Q: What other goals do you have for life?
A: I would love to travel. I did a recent class trip with one of my teachers, two of my teachers, over spring break. We explored France and England and it was amazing to immerse myself into a new culture and see new places. That was cool. I hope to be successful and happy in whatever I end up doing.
Rikki King: 425-339-3449; rking@heraldnet.com.
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