A Clover Park School District story.
Our Clover Park School District Promising Futures Friday featured student this week is Lochburn Middle School eighth grader Joshua Gyimah.
This year, Joshua is taking honors English language arts (ELA) and geometry, which are advanced classes designed to prepare students for high school level courses. “I also took honors ELA last year, and I think I overcame a lot as a student,” he said. “I learned to never give up easily, so I’ve tried harder this year in my difficult classes when I feel like giving up because I know I can push through.”
Math is Joshua’s favorite subject, and though geometry has proven to be a bit more difficult this year, he still enjoys learning new ways to solve problems. “Recently we learned about parallelograms and how you can tell if two sides of a shape are congruent because of the angles,” he said. “I really like learning the math behind something we all see visually.”
Joshua has been enjoying his classes and savoring his last year as a Lochburn student. Above all, he looks forward to the final bell of the school day when he packs up his work, waves goodbye to his classmates and heads to the gym for basketball practice. “I like being active in general, so working on a team and playing a sport I like is my favorite thing,” he said. “This is only my second year, and I’ve made varsity.”
Though Joshua is shining on the basketball court, he can’t wait to head to the football field for tryouts next year. “I’m excited to go to high school mostly because of sports,” he said. “When I’m older my dream job would be playing cornerback in the NFL.”
If his football dreams do not pan out, Joshua hopes to follow in the footsteps of his favorite teacher at Lochburn, Mr. Brooks, and become a teacher himself. “Some kids don’t have the same opportunities for knowledge or the finances to pursue more education,” he said. “I want to help others love math and make learning fun like Mr. Brooks does in our social studies class.”
