Deer Park High School: Valedictorian Aaron Harris eyes a future in art
Eagle Scout, WSU Scholar recipient and Spokane Scholar recipient is quite the résumé to have as a high schooler, and these are just a few of the accomplishments of Deer Park High School’s Aaron Harris.
“I was never a particular guy that loved one subject,” Harris said. “My drive in my classes was always fueled by not wanting to do bad or fail.”
One thing Harris has not done is fail at Deer Park. For his work in the classroom, Harris is one of Deer Park’s valedictorians. Beside not wanting to fail, Harris also thinks another quality he has allowed him to flourish in the classroom.
“He’s not the boisterous leader, he’s the guy behind the guy that leads by example,” said Rachel Harris, Aaron’s mom. “When people have a question, they come to him for help or advice.”
Outside of the classroom, Harris loves being outside. As a Boy Scout, Harris was introduced to hiking, camping and fishing at a young age and fell in love with the outdoors.
Harris earned the Eagle Scout Award in the past six months, after completing his project of building a storage room at his local church.
“It was a pretty quick project because I was about to age out, and had only about three weeks left,” Harris said.
Along with his time spent outdoors with his Scout troop and enjoying nature, Harris also participates in track and field, where he competes in the pole vault and long jump.
Harris is also a passionate musician, who plays percussion and the drums at Deer Park and hopes to continue to drum after high school.
“I have been playing percussion at the school since fifth grade,” Harris said. “So, it is something I have done for a while and really enjoy.”
Harris is planning to take this percussion talent with him at his next stop in his academic journey: the University of Washington. Harris decided on UW after applying to multiple schools in the area including Washington State University.
“When I went there a couple weeks ago, there were so many options and stuff to do,” Harris said. “My brother goes to school at WSU and is on the drumline there and got to travel to Las Vegas last year.”
In the fall, Harris is planning to join the drumline at UW, and hopes to take the same trips or bigger than his brother has drumming for WSU.
Harris is still undecided on a major but has a passion for art creation and art design.
“I think it’s really cool to see Aaron, someone who is so smart, doing a more emotive task like art and not logic,” Rachel Harris said.
Art has been something that Harris has been interested in for quite some time, and he is hoping to pursue a career in art design or production after his graduation from UW.
“Down the line, I’m hoping to do content creation and maybe art directing,” Harris said. “I have been seeing some stuff recently with art direction and have found it to be really cool.”