Portage High School senior Austin Edwards has truly done a little bit of everything over his four years in high school. Edwards, who was nominated by a PortageLife reader to be this week’s Portage Life in the Spotlight, has participated in a wide spectrum of extra-curricular activities over the last four years.
Edwards’s activities include National Honor Society, World Language Honor Society, the musical department, the theater department, Outstanding Young Man, ACES, Natural Helpers, the football team and the youth group at Grace Baptist Church. He turned in countless hours of work serving as the stage manager for the PHS Spring Musical The Wedding Singer.
“It was stressful but it did give me a lot of life experience to show how I can deal with different situations,” Edwards said. “If something unexpected pops up, I learned what you have to do to get that fixed correctly.”
Edwards is set to major in biology at Indiana University Northwest before going into premed and on to med school. He was one of 30 students honored at the ACES Banquet for finishing in the top portion of his class academically based on grade point average. He selected English teacher Marcia Hobart to accompany him in receiving an ACES award.
“It was amazing to see all the people there and everyone who has an influence on the top of our class, molding us into what we’ve become through the years of our schooling,” he said.
Music also had a profound impact on Edwards during his time at Portage High School. He was a member of the band and grew close to his fellow musicians.
“Just the fact that we’re all a family, no matter if you’re in band, orchestra or choir, you just have a bond with everybody that’s in it. The director cares so much that they feel like a parent,” he said.
Edwards’s director was Robert Symer, who is retiring at the end of this school year. Edwards said Symer always drives him to do his best and listed him as one of the staff members that made the biggest impact on him, along with Hobart, history teacher Robert Parker and auto-tech teacher Robert Barnes.
“Mr. Barnes has taught me how to start on a problem on a car and finish that problem no matter what, so it’s given me drive to finish,” Edwards said.
Edwards has soaked up every moment over the last few years, enjoying the vast array of opportunities he has received. One of those was the chance to perform in the annual Outstanding Young Man competition.
“That was just all of my high school years rolled together because that was probably one of the best events I’ve ever done,” he said. “We (the OYM contestant) felt like a small family.”
Another family-like group that Edwards was a part of was the varsity football team. He described the Friday night atmosphere as electrifying as the team came out of the helmet and took the field with the crowd screaming.
Edwards has personified an involved student, spending many afterschool hours inside the walls of PHS while maintaining a high class rank and GPA.
“When I came into high school my mother told me to make the most of my high school years,” he said. “It’s given me a different view on everything. Everything I’ve done gives me something more to high school than just someone who goes to school, studies and goes home.”