Abbey McDaniel Is Focused
(Editor’s Note: This year’s high school seniors are missing out on so much, even though arrangements have been made for graduation, prom, and more…mostly in July. The News wanted to highlight members of the senior class so our readers can get to know these fine young people who will always remember their senior year.)
Graduating a year early, and with Honors, Abbey McDaniel is focused. “I know for sure I’m going to get my Masters so I knew if I could get out of school a year earlier, then I’d get through college faster,” the JCHS 2020 senior shared.
It took 10 days to catch up with Abbey for her interview. “I definitely have to have a planner,” Abbey shared of her schedule. A dual enrollment student at the high school and Georgia Military College (GMC), she already has five of her college science credits she needs for college, important because Abbey wants to major in the health science field.
“I want to be a health scientist and specialize in medicine and microbiology and work at the CDC (Centers for Disease Control). I want to work with prevention, diagnosis and treatment,” Abbey said.
Why a health scientist? “I looked under a microscope in Mrs. (Elizabeth) Proctor’s biotechnology class comparing cancerous cells to healthy cells… and the rest was history,” she said. Abbey never looked back. She loved the class and she loved the lab that accompanied the class.
Why the CDC? “I love being in the city,” she shared. “I’m looking forward to a change of scenery. I’ve read about Ebola, the CDC and the WHO (World Health’s Organization). Once I realized Atlanta had the CDC and had everything I wanted, I realized what I wanted to do.”
Looking first for the degree program that met her interests, Abbey then set her sights on where she could go to college that was in a city and that would make it easier for her to intern with the CDC. Oglethorpe University in Atlanta met all of her requirements. When Abbey saw an advertisement that Oglethorpe placed students at the CDC for internships, her choice was simple. Oglethorpe. It had everything she wanted. Her degree program. The possibility of an internship at the CDC and its location in the heart of Atlanta.
An added bonus for Abbey at Oglethorpe is she has been signed to play golf on the Oglethorpe Golf Team for her first year. She’s hopeful she gets to play all four years. She played for JCHS Hurricanes, a beginner to golf, starting during her junior year.
Since eighth grade she has been a member of the drum line for the Marching Hurricanes. She played the tenor quad drums, marching at the Hurricanes’ football games. “It’s not easy on your back,” she said. But, she loved it. The marching, the football and the friends.
While in Mrs. Proctor’s biotechnology class, she won first place with her team at the Science Fair. Her team’s first place trophy was won with a science experiment that compared whether or not contact lens cleaner actually cleans the contacts. “We didn’t place at region,” she said, “but I did make a bunch of connections of people interested in our work.”
A member of Family Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) that meets monthly, Abbey participated in a project that replicated the BF Skinner Box, an enclosed box that contains a bar or key that an animal (a mouse in this case) can press or manipulate in order to obtain food or water as a type of reinforcement. “We actually replicated his study and got the mouse to move the handle,” she said. When the lever is pressed, food, water, or some other type of reinforcement is dispensed allowing researchers to study behavior in a very controlled environment. “Our video of the project was taken to conferences through YouTube videos,” she shared.
She also credits the FCCLA for her work with foster children, “That’s actually how I got introduced to working with foster kids,” she shared. Since ninth grade, working through Monticello Presbyterian Church, Abbey has volunteered working with foster children, providing activities and care for children from infants to 13 year olds.
Abbey has been a member of Beta Club since ninth grade and she was a basketball cheerleader for one year. She loved cheering, but her work got in the way causing her to drop cheering after one year.
When school went online for the Coronavirus, in addition to her coursework, Abbey picked up more hours at her work place. She started working at the Subway at Larry’s 4-way back in November 2019. “I stopped working for the last two months because of the virus,” she told me. As Georgia has started reopening restaurants and other workplaces, Abbey has gone back. Required to wear a mask at work, “I’m surprised at how many people aren’t wearing masks,” she said of the folks she sees coming and going.
Abbey lives in Monticello with her mom, Belinda McDaniel and her “little sister” Sierra. With the exception of first grade, she’s lived in Monticello her entire life. Her mom, originally from New York, works as the secretary at Monticello Presbyterian Church. According to Abbey her mom is quite the photographer, even winning first place in a photography competition for her nature photos, a hobby Abbey now also enjoys. Her older siblings, brothers Brandon and Andrew McDaniel and sisters Brianna McDaniel and Kaylan Smith attended Jasper County Schools for part of their education. Her sister Sierra is a student at Jasper Middle School. “She wants my room!” Abbey said of her little sister when Abbey leaves for college.
“It’s nice to have the same people your whole life,” Abbey shared, but she is ready for a new adventure with new people. “I have reached out to the other young women on my golf team at Oglethorpe and I’ve got a pretty good circle,” she said, of her upcoming move to college. “It helps being on the golf team to meet people.”
She has talked to her college roommate, a student from Gainesville. “She’s on the tennis team and has a full ride scholarship,” Abbey said. “We were drawn to each other. She’s done mission work in Colorado working with kids,” and they have being on an Oglethorpe sports team in common.
Abbey loved her time at JCHS. One of her favorite teachers, Joe Barkson a substitute teacher since Abbey has been in eighth grade who now teaches Spanish, has “always talked to me about college,” she shared. “He’s always taken time to talk with me,” she said, even though she never had him as a full time teacher.
Abbey’s start date for college is September 8, 2020. To date, Oglethorpe’s schedule includes a shortened fall schedule, from September 8 to November with a potential second semester starting in February 2021and going to the end of the year in May.
She has a few events to complete before she leaves—a July 18th prom date with her boyfriend of the last two years Malachi Guli, a 2019 graduate of JCHS who attends Georgia State University, also located in the heart of downtown Atlanta. Then there is her senior breakfast scheduled for July 23rd and, most importantly, her high school graduation scheduled for July 24th.
By the way, the contact lens experiment that won her team first place in the science fair? You can buy contact lens cleaner with confidence. The experiment proved that contact lens cleaner does work.
