EVERETT — Nicole “Nikki” Wagner, 17, is a senior at Everett High School. She is active in the Navy Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps and wants to be a teacher.
Question: What are you looking forward to about senior year?
Answer: I’m looking forward to being an NS4 (fourth-year Naval Science student) in ROTC. I’m the oldest cadet so I get to be a mentor to the younger ones.
Q: What classes are you taking?
A: I have government, English 4, pre-calculus, yearbook, NJROTC 4 and senior seminar.
Q: What was your favorite class last year?
A: I’d have to say ceramics. I’ve always been interested in art, and my favorite was always doing the clay work. It was really fun.
Q: So you want to be a teacher?
A: When I was in elementary school, my favorite teacher was my fourth-grade teacher Mr. (Kent) Arimura. He was very loud and goofy and kind of had the same personality I do. He was great at what he did, and it took me to thinking maybe this was something I could be happy doing every day. When I told my mom (Kristi Durr) I wanted to be a teacher, she said, “Fantastic.”
Q: What do you want to teach?
A: I want to do elementary school, third grade, maybe younger. My counselor recommended I think about also getting a degree in mathematics and maybe becoming a math teacher.
Q: You plan to attend Everett Community College?
A: I can get a degree there for education. I can start subbing once I have that degree and maybe later in life going for a higher degree and maybe a degree in mathematics.”
Q: What’s it like being a big sister to Kennedy, 6, and Becca, 12?
A: It’s really fun. My sister Kennedy thinks of me as being her second mom.
Q: What is your rank in NJROTC this year?
A: I’m an ensign, which is an O-1, which is the first level of the officer ranks.
Q: You’ve done a lot of community service?
A: I have not totaled it but after my freshman and sophomore year, it was 280.6 hours. I don’t know how they came up with the .6.
Q: What do you do for fun?
A: I love to paint and I have sketchbooks that I sketch in. I read in my spare time, and hang out with my sisters, take them to the park. I do a lot of ROTC stuff, so I don’t have a lot of spare time.
Q: Any favorite TV shows or books?
A: My favorite TV show would have to be “NCIS” or “Criminal Minds.” For books, my favorite series is the ‘The Mortal Instruments.”
Q: Did you do anything fun this summer?
A: My family and I went to Disneyland. We do a lot of in-state vacations. We go swimming, and we go to water parks. We didn’t do a lot this summer because of the Disneyland trip. That was the main thing.
Q: Have you been on any clubs or teams?
A: I did the bowling team for Everett High my freshman and sophomore year. I’m on a bowling league during the weekends.
Q: You have two cousins who attend the same school as you? How’s that?
A: It’s interesting when they have the same classes as you. It’s actually really cool. I think my favorite was to have ROTC with them, so we can do projects together.
Q: Any other classes you want to take before you graduate?
A: Creative writing. My mom always told me when I was little that I had an imagination that could fill a thousand books.
Rikki King: 425-339-3449; rking@heraldnet.com.
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