Suzanne Stewart
Staff Writer
Pocahontas County High School junior Jake Faris will broaden his horizons this summer at the Governor’s Honors Academy at West Virginia University.
The three-week camp will give Faris an opportunity to experience college-level courses, as well as college campus life.
Faris said he isn’t sure what his course-load will consist of, but he has several areas in which he wants to focus.
“I’ve been interested in engineering and electrical and computer engineering, as well as computer sciences – and even music,” he said.
As a rising senior, Faris still has a full year to decide which college he wants to attend, but he said three weeks at WVU will give him a better understanding of what to expect on campus.
“WVU definitely is an option to go to,” he said. “Whenever you go to visit a college campus, you just try to figure out if that college is a fit for you. I’ll see if I like WVU. I’ve also visited other college campuses. I’ve visited the campus of Yale University. I’ve visited the campus of Carnegie Mellon University.”
At PCHS, Faris has already broadened his horizons in many ways and shown his appreciation for STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics – courses.
“I actually started my own club that is called the STEM club,” he said. “What we do there is, we discuss topics in STEM. I like to think that I’m preparing them for a future in a STEM career. For example, a couple weeks ago, we held a little thing where a student could come in and you had kids in the computer science class teaching other kids how to program on a computer. Recently we have acquired little robots. We’re playing with those in class.”
Faris is also a member of the band where he plays tenor saxophone, but has tried several other instruments.
“I also know how to play piano,” he said. “I’ve tried to learn to play flute and it didn’t go very well. I also have tried learning the cello.”
Faris and his parents, Ed and Zurita, are originally from California, but moved to the Slaty Fork area four years ago.