Fair 37° F

Home > Archive > Mar 22, 2007

‘Education Comes First’
By Sharon May
Managing Editor
It’s not the usual idea of teenage fun, but for Genna Goodwin, 17, a senior at Snow Canyon High School, getting together with friends and going to biology lab is a fun way to spend her spare time.
Not that she has much of it. Studying for classes such as AP Stats, AP Biology, AP Music Theory, Myths and Folklore, American Government and Law and adding time for serving as National Honor Society president, Madrigals president and first baseman on the school softball team, Genna has little downtime.
“We do study groups in our free time, actually,” she laughed.
She also squeezes in time for participating in a book club during lunchtime, a book club started by Snow Canyon High teacher Ms. Oberhansley. Members of the club, “Scroll,” read a new book each month and meet to discuss their reading.
“It challenges our minds,” Genna said. “It’s fun to challenge your mind and see where you can go.”
College is where she wants to go after graduating. She has been accepted to Arizona State, University of Utah, Southern Utah University and Dixie State College. She said she’s leaning toward Arizona State, “just to experience something different.”
“I’ll be the first one in my family to go to college,” Genna said, and that includes among her grandparents and cousins – everyone.
Born in Loma Linda, Calif., Genna moved to Ivins when she was 2 or 3 with her parents, Craig and Donna Goodwin, and younger brother, Craig, 16, a junior at Snow Canyon High.
“My dad’s work ethic is insane, so I definitely get my drive from him,” Genna said, although she never felt pressure from him, just encouragement.
Her dad also got her interested in playing softball, she said. She started with Little League and has progressed to playing varsity softball. As the 2007 season starts, Genna is testing a knee injured just before Christmas. Ironically, she tore her PCL not on the playing field but in a fall while on a Madrigals trip. Genna has been in physical therapy since and is seeing how it goes. Her knee felt good at their first game, she said.
The softball team practices every day from 3-6 p.m. Add in her other activities, and Genna ends up with some days like the one she had recently: at school from 6:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., whisking from singing practice to classes to a softball game to a Madrigals performance.
But “education comes first,” Genna said. And despite her busy schedule – to which she might be adding a part-time job at Dollar Tree – she studies every night, which shows in her 3.9 GPA.
“Genna is awesome,” school counselor Denise Wallman said. “She’s very dedicated to school. She challenges herself with difficult classes. She gives back to the school.”
As NHS president, Genna helps coordinate school service projects. She and other NHS members will help with the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life April 20-21 at Hansen Stadium. At a recent coordinators meeting, she received captain packets and will help to sign up participants and their sponsors, with the money raised going toward cancer research.
Other NHS projects have been helping at the St. George Marathon and putting together Thanksgiving baskets of donated food for those who needed assistance for the holiday.
Genna was also on the RASK – Random Acts of Selfless Kindness – council.
“Genna also volunteers regularly outside of school,” Wallman said. “I’m totally impressed with her.”
Genna feels the same about Snow Canyon High.
“There’s nowhere else I’d rather be,” she said with Warrior pride.
Two teachers who particularly inspired her are choir instructor Robert Reimer and English teacher Lenore Madden.
“Mr. Reimer has helped me a lot through these years. Making Madrigals was a huge boost to my self-confidence,” she said. “And in AP English last year, Mrs. Madden opened me up to an analytical mind.”
In fact, Madden’s class has Genna thinking of a possible career as a criminal prosecuting attorney. Analyzing arguments in AP English opened up a whole new area for her, Genna said. But she’s also considering a science major, with business as a fallback, possibly eventually taking over her grandmother’s tax accounting business.
“I never liked science until this year,” she said. “I did the best on my ACT in science. I realized I did well and enjoyed it.”
Her main focus for her future will be getting through college. She wants to continue singing and playing softball, and as for her other goals, they’re “just the usual ones that every girl thinks about.”
No doubt, not every girl thinks about going to a study group for fun.

---