By JOHN McCALLUM
Editor
What do Spokane Scholars, Jeff Butler and a love of science have in common?
The answer is Tyson Todd and David Olson, Cheney High School class of 2007's valedictorian and salutatorian respectively.
Both young men are 2007 Spokane Scholars, and both have chosen science as their collegiate and career paths – thanks in part because of the enthusiasm Butler brings to teaching math and physical science at CHS.
As valedictorian, Todd, who is graduating with a 3.994 or 3.995 (depending on final grades) grade point average, has been accepted to Washington State University's honor college this fall, and plans on a double major in theoretical physics and genetics.
The former is mostly so he can better understand the nature of how things work in the universe at large (“I'm a big, string theory enthusiast”), and the latter as a career either as a researcher, or possibly a job with the federal government.
“The CDC (Center for Disease Control) would be pretty cool too,” he said.
Todd, who moved with his parents Steve and Doris Todd to Cheney from Moscow, Idaho when he was 5, said he got the inspiration for work in genetics, and at the CDC, from two sources.
As a sophomore, he saw the movie “Outbreak,” starring Dustin Hoffman, Renee Russo and Morgan Freeman, about what happens when a fictional Ebola-like virus infects a small California town. Todd said the movie drove him to learn more about cell structure.
But what really pushed him toward genetics was something a bit more personal – the death of his grandfather in 2005 due to brain cancer.
Todd said his knowledge level of science at the time helped out because he could understand what the doctor was telling the family and translate it into terms his mom and grandmother could understand.
“I have kind of an affinity for that sort of thing,” he said.
At one point, Todd said he talked to the doctor about a cellular grafting procedure that he thought might work with his grandfather. The doctor told him the procedure was pretty cutting edge research at the time.
“He was kind of the one who said, ‘maybe you should get to work on that,'” Todd said, adding that science helped him refocus after his grandfather's passing, aiding in the grieving process.
Besides science, Todd has been a member of the Cheney Youth Commission, played in the band four years as well as having played baseball – his favorite sport – every summer up to his junior year, when he decided to drop it and focus on academics, helped in that decision by the quality of CHS's science teachers.
It's that same educational quality that salutatorian David Olson also cites as his inspiration for pursuing science, and possibly math, as a career. Olson, who will graduate with a 3.96 GPA, will attend Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, this fall, and plans on majoring in bioinformatics – the study of genes, genomes and bio-statistics – at least for now.
“Cures for diseases, working with lab equipment, I want to go in that direction,” he said.
Olson added that if that didn't hold appeal he could always fall back on math -- a field he is good at mostly because he finds it interesting.
“But biology is the science I enjoy the most,” he said, adding that he is interested in the study of animals, and that genetics is also very fascinating.
Like Todd, Olson credits his choice of higher education and career focus to Butler and the enthusiasm he brings to the classroom, often using humor in lectures to keep things interesting, but doing it with thoughtfulness and insight.
“He's passionate about what he taught,” Olson said.
Olson moved to Cheney with his parents Steve and Shawnee and six siblings in the fourth grade, but might not have made it here if it hadn't been for aspects of another science – vulcanology. The senior was born in the hospital at Clark Air Force Base when the family was stationed there, but had to flee shortly after his birth when Mount Pinatubo erupted in May 1994, permanently closing the base.
The family went from the Philippines to a station in Alaska, and then to a posting at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., before Steve Olson, a general surgeon, was transferred to the hospital at Fairchild Air Force Base.
A Spokane Scholar, David Olson is also a National Honor Society member, an Eagle Scout – cleaning up Marshal River as his community project – and is active doing service projects through his church. Olson also played tennis this past two years, making it to districts in 2007 in varsity doubles, and played basketball for a couple years.
“I played ‘C' squad both years (sophomore and junior), but wasn't that talented,” he said with a laugh. “But I still love basketball. It's my favorite sport.”
John McCallum can be reached at [email protected]
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