Jillian Peters juggles a busy schedule packed with school activities, sports, volunteer work, Scottish dancing and bagpipe playing.
Ranked first in her class at Hopkinton High School, the Contoocook junior was selected as the Francis Wayland Parker Scholar of the Month for October. With all her varied interests, Peters said it’s tough to decide which one is her favorite or where her future will lead her.
“I have a lot of interests at this point,” she said. “I have especially considered doing law, because I love to debate, but I’ve also thought about being a doctor.”
Peters has been president of her class since freshman year. She currently has a 4.0 grade-point average.
She recently journeyed to Honduras, where she volunteered to help build kindergartens. She also participates in Interact, a community service club at Hopkinton High School, and organizes volunteer performances of her Scottish dancing troupe at local hospitals and nursing homes.
Principal Steven Chamberlin approached Peters a few months ago about applying for the monthly scholar award, and then took her out of her AP physics class a few weeks ago to tell her that she’d won.
“It was really nice,” Peters said. “It was really an honor.”
Francis Wayland Parker, a 19th-century educator, is considered the father of modern education. In her award-winning essay, Peters discusses the importance of students evaluating teachers’ effectiveness in the classroom as a way to improve teaching and enhance learning.
“I believe in the importance of educating and assessing teachers to assure that they are of the highest caliber, of guiding students along the path of learning without restricting their creativity and of nurturing the multiple intelligences in every child,” she wrote.
Peters said she has also considered a career as a philosophy professor.
“I have this idea that it would be absolutely one of the things I would most enjoy doing,” she said. “The best way to learn is to teach, I definitely believe in that.”
The Francis Wayland Parker Scholarship program is sponsored by the New Hampshire Association of School Principals, in cooperation with the New Hampshire Union Leader, Verizon, Lifetouch Studios and the Coca-Cola Bottling Co. of Northern New England.
The runners-up for the October Scholar of the Month are: Anthony J. Baglio, Alvirne High School; Rachel J. MacPherson, Belmont High School; Brianna M. Saunders, Campbell High School; Taymon A. Beal, Conant High School; Mallory A. Langkau, Groveton High School; Kelsey M. Gallagher, Manchester High School West; Rebecca L. Ziman, Monadnock Regional High School and Joseph B. Delaney, Moultonborough Academy.
For more information, call the New Hampshire Association of School Principals at 225-3431.
