As her final year at BCSS is winding down Alanna Baiton is ready to take her place as one of the proud members of the Class of 2013.
When asked during her Grade 12 exit interview how she had changed from the time she first came to BCSS she said, “I was pretty socially awkward in grade 8 and I kind of depended on my brother TJ because he was in Grade 12. He kind of looked over me until I developed a network of friends.”
But she did have a formula for success for those times when TJ wasn’t around. “I kind of just followed Brittany from class to class because she knew where she was going but I didn’t,” she admits.
Alanna said that joining all the sports teams available gave her a chance to get to know everybody much better. “I’m not so awkward today. I can pretty much go into any crowd and talk to anybody.”
She has her applications in at UBC for their kinesiology program and to Okanagan College for a therapist assistant diploma as a backup plan.
She explains that an interest in the movement of people is her motivation for choosing these courses.
Alanna is taking a strength-training course at BCSS, one of two new courses the school started to offer last year with Heather Slaney instructing. One is called strength and the other fitness. The courses provide an alternative to Fitness 12.
“It is more individual, a personalized program where you are learning more about your body, movement and health,” explained councillor Pam Storie.
As a bonus, passing the course with 80 per cent or better earns students their first ticket toward being a physical trainer. Alanna is happy that by taking the course through BCSS it only costs $70 for the certification, because the course would normally cost $400.
She has a full load for her final semester at BCSS - taking math, chemistry and English.
She’s lived her whole life in the same house in the Boundary and has been involved with 4-H for the past eight years; an experience she is very enthusiastic about.
As well as earning high school credits for her participation in 4-H Alanna has been chosen as one of seven B.C. 4-H members to go to the National Citizenship Conference in Ottawa this April.
Alanna is a good student, earning a place on the Merit Roll, meaning that she has a grade point average over 3.5.
A keen advocate of school sports programs, Alanna says, “Playing on a team is a good stress reliever. The girls are just great and sometimes it’s not even the game. It’s the bus ride there or the hotel stay.”
She is hoping to connect with a summer job in a kitchen or restaurant so she can put some money aside before returning to school this fall.
She boasts three years experience as a prep chef in the kitchen at the Rock Creek Hotel and Lounge on her resume.