Derek Jackson Takes on Tough Senior Year

Amie Brown » Circulation Manager

Senior

Derek Jackson has made a noticeable impact on Century High School by participating in activities ranging from golf and tennis, to the academic team and wind ensemble, all the while taking a total of six Advanced Placement courses his senior year.
     Jackson, moving here at age three from Laurel, has lived in Sykesville for most of his life. Jackson attributes the discovery of his aptitude for math and science to his daycare center where he and a childhood friend, Stephen Rosenfleder, would win “a lot of competitions were you had to design a boat out of foil or some other material that could hold the most pennies without sinking. “
     He also shared that he “had a sandbox with a spigot next to it where [he] would build some pretty intricate, or so they seemed at the time, canal and tunnel systems and flow water through them.”
     These days, spending less time in the sandbox, Jackson stays busy with a multitude of school activities. He is the captain of the academic team, which is advised by Buck Ferrin who said that Jackson has “shown great academic prowess” as early as 2006 when he was the first sophomore on the team.
     Ferrin stated Jackson has a “knowledge base of science above and beyond” and that he shows an uncanny intelligence on history and sports.
Jackson recognizes his interest in sports and said, “It was around kindergarten when I started to get into sports statistics and I would spend a large amount of my time reading sports encyclopedias and making my own rankings of the all-time greatest players by position and era.”
     Along with the academic team, Jackson has recently joined the debate team. Although he has yet to participate in a debate, his first is approaching. He is also a member of the National Honor Society, plays both tennis and golf, and is involved in music programs both in and out of school.
     With such a busy schedule and a rigorous workload including six advanced placement classes this year alone, Jackson admits it can be difficult to balance his time, but “school always takes precedence.” He realizes the importance of allotting time for homework before making other plans.
     Factoring in sports and extracurricular activities to homework, having an active social life can be difficult. He shared that he has a small group of friends who he spends time with on a regular basis and “that is enough of a social life to satisfy [him.]”
     Jackson admits to getting stressed just like any other high school student, but stated, “although it sounds cliché I know that all this hard work will pay off in the future.”
     After taking on an active role in most groups at CHS, Jackson is now focused on college applications. He considers the work for college preparation to be daunting, but also exciting. Jackson is narrowing his list of colleges to apply to, including Cornell, UVA, Maryland, Georgetown, Bucknell, and William and Mary and Marshall.
     Jackson is also considering applying to Princeton, just to see if he could get in. He plans to narrow his top colleges to five or six but believes “there are so many awesome things about each school and [he is] an indecisive person.”
     As for college majors, his thoughts on the matter seem to change fairly often. He shared, “Right now, I think I want to major in either political science or economics, but I am more or less undecided.”