THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 25, 1995 TAG: 9508230146
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ERIC FEBER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines
Tina George's interests know no bounds.
She can monitor and adjust expensive radio broadcasting equipment. She collects movies, plays chess and studies law enforcement. She holds a state office in the Virginia Chapter of Future Homemakers of America.
``My main goal in life is to accomplish as many things as possible,'' said the rising senior at Great Bridge High School.
George, the 17-year-old daughter of Lowri George, is also interested in cooking and catering, school and community service, electronics, radio, debating, music and other subjects too numerous to mention.
The honor roll student has been president of the Great Bridge High School chapter of the FHA for the past three years and is now state vice president in charge of publicity and historical records.
George spent July 9-13 in Washington with more than 4,600 members, advisors, alumni and guests at the FHA's National Leadership Meeting and 50th anniversary celebration. She spent $500 of her own money to attend.
``We weren't really required to go,'' George said. ``But it was my last year at the state level, and I just thought it would be nice to go to gain experience and represent my school and state.''
The theme of the national meeting was ``Youth Leading the Way.''
George said the experience was eye-opening. She saw firsthand how the national organization attempted to change its name from Future Homemakers of America to Families, Careers and Community Leaders of America.
``I learned a lot more about politics than I wanted to,'' George said. ``I saw how politics and democracy work first hand. The name change was voted down, but not by the Virginia Council, which cast all six votes in favor, overruling not only my vote against the name change but that of another officer.''
Political wrangling notwithstanding, George said she did come away from the national convention with enough skill, experience and knowledge to help her in her yearlong role as state leader.
Besides her involvement with the FHA, George caught the radio bug this summer, entered the WFOS-FM broadcast program and eventually became a top student engineer.
``I had never seen Tina before summer school,'' said WFOS chief engineer and broadcast instructor David Desler. ``In engineering we mainly get boys, but on that rare occasion we get a girl, she usually outperforms the guys, and that's the case with Tina. She's a good complement to our staff. She's intelligent, a quick study. She's a natural.''
George said her predilection toward engineering came naturally considering she loves to tinker with anything electronic. She wired her own room with stereo equipment, including speakers, tuners, audio tape and compact disc players and video tape recorders.
And now that she's around WFOS' extensive state-of-the-art electronics, she can't stay away.
``I just hang around, like the cat that lives around the studio,'' she said. ``I like to show up around 9 a.m., work on engineering and later switch over to programming. I love engineering, I'm just interested in how things work.''
That statement exemplifies George's outlook and her varied school activities.
She's a member of the National Honor Society, the Police Explorers, the chess club, president of the psychology club, a three-year member of the forensics team and historian of the environment club.
George is a movie fan and has 400 different movie titles on tape, which she has cataloged on index cards and lends out to friends. Despite her movie mania, she's also an avid reader, keeps diaries, writes poetry and enjoys the works of Edgar Allan Poe and Edna St. Vincent Millay.
Her plans after high school graduation reflect her far-flung interests, too.
``I would like to go to Johnson & Wales and work my way up to being a chef,'' she said. ``Or I would like to join the ROTC and work with the military police.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by STEVE EARLEY
Tina George is a senior and honor roll student at Great Bridge High
School.
by CNB