By Sue Wambolt, Contributing Writer
Northborough/Southborough – On March 27, 22 local high school seniors were honored at the Corridor Nine Area Chamber of Commerce 2014 Scholastic and “Champion of Education” awards breakfast held at the Doubletree Hotel. Among the students honored was Algonquin Regional High School (ARHS) senior John Arnold,? a resident of Southborough.
Arnold made the most of his four years at ARHS, becoming involved in a wide variety of extracurricular activities including band, jazz band and orchestra (first chair on saxophone and clarinet), choir (select choir member), National Honor Society, Tri-M Music Honor Society, school musicals, Ballroom Dance Club, and Relay for Life.
Outside of school, Arnold is involved with community service projects including meal packaging and organizing blood drives. Additionally, he is an Eagle Scout, Boy Scout instructor and troop guide, Sunday school teacher, church music teacher and musical director of plays.
Arnold grew up watching and singing along to musical films such as “The Sound of Music,” “My Fair Lady” and “Meet Me in St. Louis.” As a third-grader he began singing in the church choir. That was just the beginning, though, as he went on to sing and act in many musicals both at school and in the community.
At ARHS, Arnold was cast in “Where's Charley,” “Pippin,” “Bye Bye Birdie,” “Damn Yankees” and currently “The Apple Tree.”
Outside of school, he was cast in the Westborough Players” “Anything Goes” and the Performing Arts Connection's “Aida” and “Wicked.” Additionally, he directed music for ARHS production of “Our Town” and has been a musical assistant for the Hopkinton production of “Guys and Dolls” and Black Box Productions” “Spelling Bee” and “Company.”
While Arnold said that he has been taught by many wonderful teachers at ARHS, it is AP U.S. history teacher John Barry who has affected him the most.
“Mr. Barry's class was incredibly difficult but the heavy focus on discussion and writing helped me become more comfortable with expressing my ideas clearly,” he said.
As Arnold prepares to graduate from high school, he does so with a clear vision for the future. He will be attending Tufts University where he intends to major in chemical engineering.
“I have always loved chemistry,” he said. “The ideas behind it make sense to me; they are like puzzle pieces and I am always able to put them together. I specifically picked chemical engineering because my experiences in Boy Scout community service projects and music events at school have made me realize how rewarding it is to solve problems, and chemical engineering is a great way to solve society's problems – it can be applied to make better medicine or more efficient batteries. Chemistry is involved in the production of almost everything we use and I would love to be able to make people's lives easier through my career.”
Arnold looks forward to graduation and pursuing his dreams.
The greatest lesson that he will be taking away from his four years at ARHS, he said, is this: “Life is unpredictable, but preparing and being brave enough to be proactive will get you far.”