Medical Lake High School: Katherine Hart fills high school career with math, JROTC
Medical Lake High School math teacher Tina Shull remembers one of the only times student Katherine Hart raised her hand in geometry class as a freshman.
“It was, ‘Can I maybe do some Algebra II independently on my own?’ ” she said.
Shull allowed it, and Hart began completing her algebra work independently. She finished that course over the summer and went into precalculus, continuing her math studies fairly independently during her time at Medical Lake and began tutoring students in Shull’s geometry classes.
“This is my 31st year teaching, I’ve taught calculus all 31 years, she’s probably one of the top five students I’ve ever taught,” Shull said.
Hart has been interested in math since elementary school, where she would help her fellow students during class. She placed first in fifth and sixth grade out of students from around the region in Math is Cool competitions and took advanced math in middle school. She arrived at Medical Lake already a year ahead. Hence, the desire to work ahead in Shull’s class.
“(English) is really a matter of opinion, but math, for the most part, you’re working toward one answer, and at least in school, it’s always going to be right or wrong,” Hart said. “There’s no in between.”
Hart has also excelled in JROTC, which she joined freshman year for the academic portion, which covers things like aerospace science and history, as well as the leadership portion, which includes participating in things like color guard and flag folding at school and in the community.
It was an easy choice to join JROTC, as her father was in the Air Force, and two of her brothers also participated in JROTC while students at Medical Lake. When Hart’s father retired, the family moved off Fairchild, and Hart saw JROTC as an opportunity to return to a similar environment. She participated all four years, earning the rank of cadet colonel and acting as the cadet group commander her senior year.
She was also a member of the school’s Windborne choir her freshman year, played flute and piccolo in band and has been a member of the National Honor Society since she was a sophomore. With that group, she taught kindergartners and first-graders about fire safety in partnership with the American Red Cross.
She is also the treasurer of Book Talkers, the school’s book club, and edits Cardinal Reads, the newspaper Book Talkers produces. She’s a mentor with MPower, a peer mentoring program, vice president of the senior class and spent most days after school her freshman year with the robotics club building wooden structures used to test the robots.
Hart is one of three valedictorians at Medical Lake. It wasn’t something Hart necessarily strove for, but she knew she had a good chance of earning the distinction because of her grades and the classes she took during her high school career.
Plus, there’s the matter of sibling rivalry.
“I have three older brothers, very competitive,” she said. “They all like sharing how much smarter they are than me, and so I’ve got to keep up with them.”
In the fall, Hart will attend Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona, where she’ll study forensic biology. She loves the small campus and small town and that the school focuses on project-based learning.
“From a parent’s perspective, it has been so inspiring to watch her journey, the grit that she has demonstrated, the strength that she’s shown,” said Hart’s mother Tera Hart, who works at Medical Lake as a graduation specialist. “She doesn’t let anything stop her.”