Seeing her future stretching out before her, Jenna Morrison is both excited and anxious. Excited, because she has so many options. Anxious, because so much is changing.
“With school, I’ve always had this structure and then one day, it’s gone,” she said. “I really like organization. I like to have a routine. So it’s kind of scary that I’m going to have to find something new to structure my life around.”
Her path truly is wide open after she graduates Saturday as one of Iola High School’s seven valedictorians.
Sure, Jenna has a few ideas about what she wants to do. She has plans.
“I’m going to Allen Community College for a year. After that, I have no idea.”
Morrison sees that lack of definition as an opportunity.
“When I enrolled at Allen, I chose a bunch of very different courses. Design. Macroeconomics. I’m hoping to weed things out that don’t interest me, so hopefully I can find something I truly enjoy doing,” she said. “Business is a pretty broad major, so I figured that might be interesting.”
Her parents, Rick and Jessie Morrison, both work at Allen County Regional Hospital. Jenna is also leaning toward a career in health care, perhaps as a labor and delivery nurse.
“That seems like something that would be amazing to be a part of,” she said.
She’s decided she wants to minor in Spanish. She took two years of Spanish early in high school but her skills are limited and rusty. She’s been practicing online and will take college courses as she works toward fulfilling a longtime dream.
“I’ve always wanted to go to Spain. I like the culture. And I want to see the world,” she said. “Spanish is commonly spoken in the U.S., so it will benefit me to know the language. I want to be able to communicate with everyone.”
JENNA grew up with a twin brother, Jaydon, and older brothers, Quinton, who graduated from IHS in 2014 and Alex, who graduated with the Class of 2018.
Jaydon is also a valedictorian candidate. His profile will be featured Saturday.
“We would always try to see who could get the better grades, just to kind of poke at each other,” Jenna said of the friendly competition between the two. “He was always better in math and I did better in English. In science and history, we kind of split down the middle.”
The two have different interests. Jenna is involved in theatre, and competed at the state forensics competition last weekend, where she gave an informative speech about communications skills. Jaydon prefers FFA and football. They both were involved in the clubs Fellowship of Christian Athletes, LINK Crew, SADD and National Honor Society. Jenna is president of SADD and NHS.
“It’s a good balance,” she said.
During her freshman and sophomore years, Jenna played softball. She transitioned to basketball during her junior and senior years.
“I’m not a multi-sport kind of person so I wanted something that was a longer season. I got to enjoy being on a team for more of the year.”
She also serves as Student Council treasurer. Next year, she’ll be one of Allen’s Student Ambassadors, “which is kind of the same thing as STUCO, so I’m glad I get to pursue that in college.”
SUCCESS in her school work came easily, she said, because she set the bar high.
“I was always told, ‘Do your best.’ And my best was kind of good,” she said, shrugging her shoulders. “I don’t like to be bad at things.”
