Article Image Alt Text

Joellei Benoit, a job shadower from North Vermilion Middle School.

Article Image Alt Text

Anne Catherine Gallet

Article Image Alt Text

Julie Bertrand

Article Image Alt Text

Zack Smith

Article Image Alt Text

Megan Cao

Article Image Alt Text

Carson Suire

Job-shadower wants to know what influences VC students

Eighth-grade girls named Joellei usually aren’t seen in the halls of Vermilion Catholic interviewing Sophomores, but today, that’s exactly what I did. My name is Joellei Benoit, and I am an eighth grade student at North Vermilion Middle School. Students are the futures of the world, and what influences us students is important.
Today I was able to ask a question that most students typically don’t hear, and asked a question that is rarely ever asked. “What influences you?” I asked five Vermilion Catholic students what influences them, and then we go deeper into the lives of five growing and developing people of the world.
First, I asked 16-year-old Anne-Catherine Gallet how her experience at VC has pushed her, not necessarily for college, but for anything. Her answer?
“Well, our biology teacher was actually a college professor, so actually getting to learn from college people will get me ready to take college courses like that and be able to do things that I like, like physical therapy.”
Which she mentioned may be her goal when she gets older. Anne-Catherine also said that the teachers in general are a big help too, with tutoring before school and after if you need it. She also says that she has parents who are really big into athletics like herself, but they “think sports are something to do to enjoy your teenage years, but still stick to your education.”
Asking the next students what influences them in their school makes me really realize , and hopefully opens other people’s eyes too, to what can make a person into what they are. They might be different people, but they are all in the same environment being affected by different things.
Megan Cao (15) is a girl who said she once was shy, but after her friend really pushed her in her faith, she broke out of it. Megan also loves fashion, saying that what you wear expresses who you are. This same friend who pushed Megan into her faith also introduced her to the drama club. Not only fashion, but she’s “really into music and theater, and the drama club here is amazing.
It’s so much fun and we get to do a lot of performances.” Having great friends is like having a great family, and when Megan is stressed from school she can count on her friend to once again point her towards her faith to pray. And in the words of Anne-Catherine, “You are who your friends are.”
I also talked to 16 year old Zack Smith, who loves his small community where everyone knows everyone at V.C. When asking Zack what has influenced him at his school, he said, “Biology, because I really want to go into the medical field. I don’t know where yet, but I do wanna go.”
That’s a start, being that Zack says that he has parents that support him as he sticks to school, and he can accomplish anything he puts his mind to. Not only does he have supportive parents to keep him on track, but his small community is what he loves most about going to Vermilion Catholic. His friends in this small community push him to strive and push him to the limit, and that’s what he’s striving to do.
“Saying no to peer pressure even through social media” is what Julie Bertrand said when I asked her how her peers influenced her at Vermilion Catholic. Being one of three triplets (who she jokingly says think they’re better then her?) might have been why when I asked her what she thought people should know, she said that “Everyone is different in your own way.”
Being 15 and a triplet is probably hard enough, but Julie can probably handle it being that she said that V.C. made her self-disciplined. So how is Julie different? “Because I get along with older people,” and she must have an old soul to be able to talk so easily.
However, everyone is completely different and has a world within their own that no one may know about, and that became clear while talking to Carson Suire. At 17 years old, he says that he wants to “show his inner world and let other people find that entrance. You can escape the world and make your own,” through his career choice, which is video game designing.
Carson is inspired by his dad, who he says is hard working and accomplished his goal even after an illness. Carson says that since he was three he worked on old classic cars with his dad, that helped his art and creativity in designing games.
All of these students had one thing in common when asked who influenced them. That thing was that their parents, teachers, friends, and people that they chose to surround themselves with made a difference in their life to make them who they are. Who you are is determined by what you do and the choices you have made, and as Anne -Catherine Gallet said, “You are who your friends are.” So who are you, and what influences you?

Vermilion Today

Abbeville Meridional

318 N. Main St.
Abbeville, LA 70510
Phone: 337-893-4223
Fax: 337-898-9022

The Kaplan Herald

219 North Cushing Avenue
Kaplan, LA 70548

The Gueydan Journal

311 Main Street
Gueydan, LA 70542