Students like Courtney Hersick do community service to help their school and community. Photo by: Beca Lee
By Rebeca Lee
At PHS there are many spectacular students that do exceptional work in the school and their community. Sophomore Courtney Hersick is one of the students who helps her community and school.
When Hersick gets involved, she devotes herself 100 % because she feels this is important, “When I do something, I do it to the fullest extent. I am very determined. I am definitely a leader and I am easy to get along with. I love to meet new people!” In her free time, her favorite thing to do is play soccer. She said, “I would do it 24 hours a day if it were possible. There aren’t any words to explain my love for soccer.”
When Hersick gets involved, she devotes herself 100 % because she feels this is important, “When I do something, I do it to the fullest extent. I am very determined. I am definitely a leader and I am easy to get along with. I love to meet new people!” In her free time, her favorite thing to do is play soccer. She said, “I would do it 24 hours a day if it were possible. There aren’t any words to explain my love for soccer.”
Other than soccer, family plays a major role in Hersick’s life. She said that her family is the “absolute most important thing to [her]” and they are the ones that made her who she is. Out of her family members she says the one whom she looks up to the most is her sister, PHS Senior Kitt Hersick. Courtney Hersick said “She is so smart, beautiful, and on a road to a very successful life, and I hope I can be half the person that she is today.” She also talked about her other family members. She said “My mom is my best friend and my dad knows me better than I know myself. My little sister is my rock because I know she will ALWAYS be there for me.”
Herisick is a talented student at PHS who has put in numerous hours of volunteer work in order to help the community. She has managed to do this while still keeping her grades up and participating in many other extra curricular activities such as playing soccer for PHS. Seventh grade was when she first started doing these good deeds and volunteer work. Hersick said “I volunteered 72 hours at the Boys and Girls Club of Marshall County during my freshman year. I frequently volunteer coaching younger soccer teams and help them with the basics. I would also go to the nursing home that [my] mom managed and visit with the elders.”
At first Hersick started volunteering in order to meet her goal of fifty hours of volunteer work for Key Club. Everyday after school, she would volunteer for an hour and a half helping kids with their homework. When her 50 hours of community service was up, she was a little disappointed. Hersick said “Some of the kid got easily attached to me because I was always there to help them with their homework, talk with them, and give them my full attention everyday. Because I volunteered daily, the kids were expecting to see me everyday, and I felt that if I didn’t go to volunteer that day, I’d be letting them down.”Volunteering at the Boys and Girls Club had a huge impact on Hersick. “I realized that I have so much more than most kids and that I need to be grateful for everything I have.” In August of 2011, she got a job working in the education room at the Boys and Girls Club. She explains that it can be very frustrating and stressful, but the smiles on the children’s faces makes it all worth it. Hersick said she believes that volunteering benefits the person doing it just as much as the person receiving it “I think people can really learn a lot about themselves while volunteering.”
Hersick said, “I think I have impacted a lot of kids’ lives in such a positive way and that makes me so happy.”