The dedication and hard work she applies to school and service has brought to her the label of good citizen.
Clarkston High School senior Jennifer Baibak is a 2004 Good Citizens Award winner denoted by the Sashabaw Plains chapter of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution (NSDAR).
The 18-year-old Sashabaw Plains NSDAR chapter awards a number of students each year from surrounding area schools who have displayed qualities of dependability, service, leadership and patriotism to community and country.
The recipients are chosen through their respective high schools by their counseling staff.
Clarkston High School counselor Larry Sherrill said, “This year’s senior class is really outstanding. This is quite a recognition for (Baibak).”
“I was surprised,” Baibak said, of winning. “I was like ‘wow,’ it was shocking. It’s kinda cool, out of the whole school, I’m recognized to represent my school. It’s exciting.”
The National Honor Society student keeps herself busy with activities on campus. You can see her running cross country and track, and marching in the band with the mellophone. Within the school district, Baibak is active tutoring middle school students, assisting at elementary family events, and helping young students in the Homework Club.
“It’s fun. I love working with kids.”
She had planned on becoming either a pediatrician or pediatric dentist, until she was one of only 37 girls across the nation to be accepted into a two-week, biomedical engineering summer program at Kettering University.
“I love children and I love math and science, but by going to that program it really sparked an interest in engineering and biomedical engineering. I think that is what I’m going to focus on,” Baibak said, noting her dad, an engineer, has also been an influence on her decision.
She hopes to go to the University of Michigan, but is also considering Kettering University and Michigan Tech.
“I’ve been trying to put a lot of work into this year. I do take hard classes. I want to work hard. I try to challenge myself with my classes,” she said.
Baibak holds a 3.83 grade point average and blames an Advanced Placement biology class last year for bringing her GPA down.
“I put a lot of work into school because that’s number one. I’m in AP calculus this year and it’s kind of been a struggle for me,” she admits. “I’ve been getting A’s in math my whole life. I have a B and it’s hard to deal with it, but I work really hard. In the fall with marching band and cross country going on at the same time and with school work, it’s really hard. I don’t have time for my friends most of the time. I wish I had time for my friends, but right now I realize this is my future.”
Baibak still finds time to involve herself in the community, though it’s a community she’s only lived in for four years, relocating from Illinois with mom Joan, dad Mike and younger brother Matt.
“I feel like I’ve lived here my whole life,” she notes.
When she’s not in school or working at her winter job at Pine Knob Ski Resort, she’s involved with the youth group at St. Daniel Catholic Community through which she has volunteered in soup kitchens and went on missions trips like travelling to Tennessee to spruce up the home of an elderly woman. And for two years, she’s worked with four year olds in SCAMP, a summer camp for special needs children and young adults.
“She’s a great student,” Sherrill said. “She’s very involved in the school. She’s multi-talented. She’s done community service work. She’s worked with SCAMP. She’s done mission work. It was everything she has done that encapsulates what DAR represents. She really is a great example of the type of student we like to have represent Clarkston High School.”