Bailey Jalas

Parents: Jennifer and Dean Jalas

Cumulative GPA and Class Rank: 3.968 (4 of 107)

Activities: I am involved in competition and Sideline Cheerleading, Dance Team, Color Guard, Show Choir, NHS, and Track. My track events are long jump, the 4x200, 4x100, and it switches between the sprint med and the open 100. I have been to State Track and Drake three years so far hoping for four!

Other clubs outside of school: Soul Expressions Studio Dance and Crossfit, I have been at Soul Expressions since I was about 8 and I have loved every year of it. I started Crossfit the summer before my junior year to get myself ready for track season. Crossfit has been a very intense activity but it has definitely helped me become faster!

Future plans: I plan to go to SCC and to do online school for about two years. From there I would like to transfer to a University and study forensic science. I am not exactly sure what University I will be transferring to but I know it will be worth it in the end. I would eventually like to work in a forensic lab and be a drug analyst. I would also like to go on crime scenes and collect evidence.

How will your high school experiences help you in coming years? Something that my high school experiences will help me with in the future is talking to people I do not know. I have always had anxiety and talking to people has always made me nervous. Although, when I am at my activities sometimes I have nothing to do but talk to the people around me. For example at track meets while I am waiting at my station for the 4x100 I am the only one from my school on this side. When this happens I usually find myself talking to someone around me to distract myself from the nerves. This has also happened many times while I am backstage getting ready to perform my solo at dance competitions.

Fondest memory of high school? My favorite memory of high school has to be traveling to Des Moines for State Dance with my dance girls. I love the girls I dance with, they are the reason I love going to every practice. When we go to Des Moines, we usually stay in a hotel from Wednesday to Friday. When we are doing this it is such a fun bonding time. We will usually start our trip off with shopping at the Jordan Creek Mall for at least 3 hours. This is my favorite part because I get to go shopping with my friends and after we eat at the Cheesecake Factory. This is something I always look forward to because the food is so good! When we get back to our hotel we will get our swimsuits on and go swim in the pool for as long as we can. Eventually the next day comes and we are up getting ready to go out and compete with our dances. We always make sure we have the best music for the ride to Wells Fargo. We will spend our whole day at Wells Fargo and then make our way back to the hotel. It is usually very late when we get back but we are not very tired so we are up watching movies. Eventually we all fall asleep and the same thing happens. We wake up and get ready and go dance at Wells Fargo and then that last night after awards get done at 11 p.m we come back to Mount Pleasant.

Which teachers have had the biggest impact on you and why? I believe some teachers that have had the biggest impact on me are Mr. Martin in middle school and both the Depriests. I had Mr. Martin in middle school for STEM and it was one of my favorite classes to go to. It was always a class that was not very strict and we would have lots of fun there. Now Mr. Martin is my track coach and he is always there to support me and answer my questions when I have them. Martin is always there with us during practices and will sometimes even run our workouts with us. He makes sure he is very close to the team and we are always on top of our game.

Mr. and Mrs. Depriest have left a big impact on me from the way they ran the music program. Mr. Depriest was always a happy soul and never failed to make me smile. All of his stories would always make my day and he would always bring up the mood. He was always so sweet and always complimented me after I performed during show choir. I always had a thought of him pop up in my mind while I was singing and dancing my heart out. Same thing with Mrs. Depriest, I would always think about her as well. Mrs. Depriest wanted you to think she was very mean and scary but deep down she also had such a sweet soul. She always wanted the best for all of her students and made sure everyone felt like they were a part of the group. I was very sad when they both decided to retire but they left such a huge mark on many student’s hearts.

Who is your role model and how did they influence you? My role model is my older brother. He has always been there for me and I feel like I have followed in his footsteps very well. He was the first child to be in any advanced classes, and I was the only other one. This caused me to look up to my brother greatly because I felt we were very alike. I would always come to him if I had any questions about homework and I always felt like I could talk to him about anything. He is one of the sweetest and most selfless people I have ever met. I am still following him in his footsteps when I go to college. Both of us will be attending SCC and will further our education after that.

What is special about your high school? Something that is very special about my high school is how much our community is involved and supports us. The community is something our school could not live without. They are always there to support our football team no matter what the outcome will be. Not only do they support athletics but they also support the music program. For example two years ago we did fundraising to get new band uniforms and the community did everything they could do to make sure we got enough money. They care about us so much and this is something I appreciate greatly.

If you go back to when you were a freshman, what advice would you give yourself? If I were a freshman again I would tell myself to live in the moment and take in all of your high school experiences. Everyone always says high school goes so fast and you think they are lying, but in reality it does fly by. All throughout high school I was always stressed out about the next day and what activities came with it. This caused me to kind of miss what was happening in that moment and caused me to dislike all my activities. There was a time where I was so worn out from stressing myself out about all my activities I had in one week, but when you think about life as one day at a time it is a lot easier to handle.