|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Austin Jones is Westminster Christian School’s Silver Knight nominee in the area of Science. Jones is active in school and was the driving force behind the creation of the school’s scuba diving club.
“We do trips down to Key Largo for people who are already certified, and we certify people who want to be introduced to the ocean,” he says.
He started the club in tenth grade and has been running it ever since. Jones has been scuba diving for five years and wanted to share his love of diving with his friends at school.
The diving club does more than enjoy the beauty of the ocean. Club members also help restore the coral reefs. They do two trips a year.
“We go to the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary,” he says. “We got to participate and help maintain their artificial reefs. We did underwater debris clean-ups as well.”
“I’ve always been interested in the ocean,” he says. “I want to go into marine biology and spread that passion.”
In fact, last year he did his AP Capstone program research project on coral reefs.
“I spent the year studying coral reef ecology and the threat of plastic pollution in coral reef ecosystems,” he says. “I submitted my findings to the Journal of Student Research. If accepted, it will be published in their peer reviewed publication.”
He’s vice president of the Science National Honor Society which requires him to organize events and fundraisers.
“I invited a speaker from the Bimini Sharklab in the Bahamas to come speak about shark conservation,” he says.
He also sponsors recycling campaigns, which put bins in most classrooms on campus and encourage students to think about where their garbage ends up.
Jones is planning on double majoring in marine biology and something creative – photography, videography, journalism or graphic design.
He’s been accepted to the University of Miami and the University of Hawaii and Hawaii Pacific University.
His creative side is fed by his position as editor-in-chief of the school literary magazine, Roots. Jones says they run a contest to help the staff of nine choose the 40-50 pieces that are featured in the magazine. They include prose, poetry, art and photography.
His creativity includes music. He’s founder and president of the acapella ensemble.
“We rehearse every week,” he says. “We have recorded a song and we did Christmas caroling. We went around to every classroom and serenaded them.”
The acapella club welcomes both male and female singers who audition to join. Unlike the groups in the Pitch Perfect movies, the singers at Westminster have recorded a song but they don’t perform in competitions.
In addition, he sings bass in the school choir and is also a percussionist in the school band.
Jones is on the Westminster sailing team.
“We sail on Biscayne Bay on 420’s,” he says.
Jones has been at Westminster since ninth grade. Previously he lived in Germany where his parents worked at an international boarding school nestled in the hills of the Black Forest.
This past summer, Jones did an internship in the Westminster communications office, designing logos, merchandise, social media templates and headers. He’s also designed certificates and hoodies. He likes to use AP 2D studio art to create his digital artwork but he’s also experimenting with printmaking and painting with acrylics.
Jones is also an author. While in sixth grade he wrote and published a children’s book called The Adventures of Sloppy the Snail. He hopes to soon expand his reach and publish novels and screenplays as well.
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
