THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 2, 1996 TAG: 9605310169
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 22 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PAUL CLANCY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 82 lines
In a recent forensics competition, Angela Martin couldn't help acting the dark, slightly crazed lines of an Anne Sexton poem:
Brains have rotted here like black beans . . .
Nor could she help memorizing the whole poem.
On both counts, she lost points. No emoting. No memorizing. Those are rules for these formal, play-it-straight competitions.
But Angela is not so easily contained. Sitting in a conference room at Bayside High School, gesturing energetically, the 17-year-old senior seems capable of unaided flight.
She completes her high school career with a near-perfect grade point average and a mind-boggling list of volunteer accomplishments - all the while holding down a 35-hour-a-week job and apparently keeping a friendly, effervescent outlook.
Hard to contain might best describe her.
``I just exploded,'' she says, describing her first taste of volunteer work on an Army base in Hawaii. ``I believe I drove everybody on the base crazy, trying to start new things.''
The only reason she's not giving one of the student graduation addresses is that she transferred into the school system just this school year, a disqualifying technicality, Bayside school officials say.
``She's a model student who is dedicated in her approach to everything,'' says Assistant Principal Gene Soltner.
In addition to numerous scholarship and volunteer awards, in the past year she took part in several teen conferences, coordinated a summer fashion show, volunteered at a youth center and at a youth development program. And she told a roomful of generals and their wives in Washington, D.C., what it's like being an Army base teenager.
Angela moved from Oahu, Hawaii, to Virginia Beach last September. She was born in Stuttgart, Germany of American and German parents. In addition to Hawaii, she has lived in California, Kansas, Washington, Georgia and Texas.
At first she didn't like Virginia Beach, especially the cold and the snow. ``But after a few weeks of getting to know the school and the people here, I fell in love with it.''
The daughter of Lafayette and Linda Johnson, she'll be going to Creighton University in Omaha, Neb., a small school with a Jesuit tradition well-known for its nursing and pre-med programs. She wants to become a doctor, specializing in pediatrics.
``I've known for some time that I had a passion for helping people who are sick,'' she says. Then, working in child care and, ``looking at those little faces six hours a day, I knew that's what I wanted to do.''
Her chief inspiration: ``I owe it all to my mom.'' Dimples show when she smiles. ``Mom motivated me to be chairperson of this, captain of that. She taught me to get involved and to believe that anything I could get my hands on I could turn into a success.''
There's not much time between getting home from school and work as cashier and checker at C&M Cafeteria on Independence Boulevard.
Her boss, manager Michael Dunn, says he has no doubt she has a bright future. ``She works real hard and knows what it takes to get ahead,'' Dunn says.
School and job and studying and volunteering - somehow she has time to chat with friends on the phone.
``Of course!'' she exclaims. ``I'm a girl!''
She worries about some of her peers, the tendency to take drugs or become pregnant. If she were giving advice to her fellow seniors, she says she would tell them: ``Be yourself. Don't get mixed up in being something you're not.''
Being herself seems to come easily: uncomplicated, enthusiastic, friendly.
``I'm just Angela,'' she says. ``I just kind of do what makes me happy.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by STEVE EARLEY
I've known for some time that I had a passion for helping people who
are sick,'' says volunteer-crazy Angela Martin, who plans to major
in pre-med. Then, working in child care and, ``looking at those
little faces six hours a day, I knew that's what I wanted to do.''
``I've known for some time that I had a passion for helping people
who are sick,'' says volunteer-crazy Angela Martin, who plans to
major in pre-med. Then, working in child care and, ``looking at
those little faces six hours a day, I knew that's what I wanted to
do.'' by CNB