Her laces loop once, twice and into a firm knot as she positions herself at the starting line of a cross-country meet. With her closest friends by her side, she blasts forward at the sound of the start, fueled by the same determination that propels her academic success.
Caroline Wilson, a junior at Revere High School (RHS), has been on the cross-country team since her freshman year at RHS and attends Cuyahoga Valley Career Center (CVCC), where she has recently received the Student of the Month award. Each district selects one student from all CVCC students to be spotlighted monthly. She is participating in the Sports Medicine Exercise Science program which positively correlates with her love for cross country.
“Even before I was a runner, I was interested in [exercise science], but once I went to CVCC, within the first week, we were talking about careers. And there’s so much more than being a physical therapist, which is the main [career] to go for,” Wilson said.
While taking classes at CVCC there is a “main umbrella” career that similar careers stem from. CVCC promotes classes that help high school students go directly into their chosen field or help them get a jumpstart on their careers academically while being offered select opportunities specific to their CVCC class. The students get some of their core class credits there because the teachers tie in school subjects, in the medical trade students learn advanced anatomy and they get a science credit towards graduation through their home school.
Anita Wilson, Wilson’s mother, has been a constant source of support throughout her daughter’s educational and running journey. From the early stages of Wilson’s career, her mother has been there to guide her, offering encouragement and insight.
“She was thinking about physical therapy and she wasn’t sure if that was something that she wanted to get into. So she thought she would just give it one year and see. Just to dip her toe in the water and see if that was something that she was going to be interested in,” Anita Wilson said
Although Wilson has changed her mind about what she wants to study, CVCC gives students like Wilson a reason to keep going on the path of trade. A trade can be any job that a student can go directly into after high school and bypass the financial burden of a college education. Anita Wilson also spoke about how through CVCC, Wilson was able to create relationships with students from other schools.
“She was happy to meet people that were not from a ten-mile radius of us and meet people that went to Brecksville and even Garfield Heights and, even more schools,” she said.
There are currently eight high schools that are affiliated with CVCC, and Revere is one of them. CVCC can be a way to promote relationships outside of a student’s home school. Between specialized schooling and after-school sports, Wilson handles her extracurriculars by staying focused on her future and keeping her priorities in check while still doing the things she enjoys. Wilson spends the majority of her free time running for fun, but her passion for the sport keeps her wanting to come back for more.
“[Running] gives me something to do, but that’s not the reason I do it. I do it because it’s the best part of my day. . . . [Nothing] had set my heart on fire as much as running does. . . . The thing that makes me motivated to go to school is if I can’t go to practice if I don’t go to school,” she said.
Wilson also serves as a student leader on the cross-country team. Her coach and teammates see her positive attitude and willingness to include everybody, no matter their background. Anybody joining a sport late tends to feel left out, but Wilson makes sure that everyone is included and feels welcome. Wilson’s coach, RMS math teacher Kevin Somerville, explained her role on the team.
“I think she’s one of our leaders on the team. She interacts with her teammates. She does a great job talking to people whether it’s someone is paired up or just other teammates,” he said.
Somerville has been involved with Wilson’s running career for seven seasons. Wilson was able to participate in winter track in her eighth-grade year with the high school team due to her cross-country times from the previous season, and her participation in both cross-country and track for her three years in high school.
“We all know that if there’s something on the workout plan, she will do it rain or shine and then ask what else she can do. She definitely brings a big work ethic but also has a ton of fun with it,” Somerville said.
Wilson brings positive energy to the team’s atmosphere. She is committed to team bonding and relationships between people while also making sure that everyone can improve the best they can whether it be physically or mentally.
“I see that she’s learned to really keep things in perspective and not put too much pressure on herself over the wrong things. She learned to just trust the work she’s done and trust her process in races, but then also in other areas of her life. She’s done a great job growing into someone who can prioritize things and have a good perspective,” Somerville said.
Wilson’s hard work has not gone unnoticed by her teachers and coaches. She uses the skills that she developed in her time in the running community and program to benefit her in the classroom. She uses her biggest influences to drive her love for what she does, both on and off the running trail
“Mr. Somerville and his dad and the instructors at CVCC have really made her excited to become the person that she’s becoming with the studying or the running and just trying new things and pushing herself to try things that she hasn’t tried before. They’re probably the biggest influences,” Anita Wilson said.
Wilsons friends and family that fuled her love for learning and running affects her daily. She developed more maturity and hard-working as she grew her relationship with the people she sees as mentors.
“Something that I have told myself every day is when you actually want to quit, [when] it’s really hard and painful, [that] is the part that you’re improving at. . . . That’s where the self-discipline happens. And I have related that to [running], school and life,” Wilson said.
Wilson has grown from the time she has spent with the athletic program throughout her years in the Revere district. She has shown her teachers her dedication to improving her education past the high school level and is excelling in her specialized outside education. Her teachers saw her love to learn and rewarded her with the Student of the Month award. Wilson is constantly organizing her priorities to best succeed as a multi-sport athlete and student.
