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@ School: Patrick Smith

Patrick (Photo courtesy of Patrick Smith)Gifft Hill School salutatorian and Rotary Club of St. John scholarship recipient Patrick Smith, 17, is off at Seton Hill University in Greensburg, Pa., to start the next chapter in his life.

“I’d like to get a job in forensic science,” he said.

Admitting he was influenced by television shows such as CSI and NCIS, he said he knows that a career in that field won’t be exactly like it is on television.

“But I thought it was interesting,” he said.

Smith excelled in math and science, with chemistry and calculus his favorites.

In 2011 he was picked to attend The World Food Prize conference in Des Moines, Iowa. He qualified after writing a paper entitled “Improving the Implementation of Agricultural Research and Technology within Uganda.”

At this event, people from all over the world gather to discuss issues like food security, production and other food issues.

“It was a very life changing experience,” Smith said.

He said that while he learned that there is a lot of hunger in the world, there are also a lot of people trying to do something about it. Smith said he got to meet several heads of state from African countries who attended the conference.

Judy Chamberlain, Gifft Hill’s head of school, said Smith took advantage of every opportunity the school offered.

“He just loves learning,” she said.

Smith spent grades nine through 12 at Gifft Hill, but was a peripatetic student for the lower grades. Born on St. Thomas but growing up on St. John, he attended Church of God of Prophecy School on St. Thomas, a school in Maryland, Guy Benjamin School, Julius E. Sprauve School, and Bertha B. Boschulte School on St. Thomas. At Sprauve, he said, he was in the gifted and talented program.

He was the senior class president and the senior class representative on the student council at Gifft Hill.

At Gifft Hill, he played on the combined private school football team called the Arawaks, and when Gifft Hill had a basketball team, he played on it. He also likes baseball and said he’d like to be a major league professional player.

Since that goal is very difficult to achieve, he’s betting his future on college.

Smith said he picked Seton Hill because it provided a small school environment similar to Gifft Hill, affording personal attention. Additionally, Seton Hill offered a good financial aid package. That coupled with the $5,000 Rotary scholarship is a big help.

“It was a tough field, but he was the best qualified,” Rotary Club member John Fuller said, adding that the scholarship is based on academics and financial need.

“He outscored the other three candidates,” Fuller said.

Smith now calls St. Thomas home, but made the trip to St. John for school every day.

When he’s home, he lives with his mother, Carla Challenger Maynard. His father is Patrick Smith Sr., and he has four sisters and one brother.

As for after college, Smith said that he plans to return to the Virgin Islands for a while, even exploring the possibility of working as a medical examiner, but said he hopes to eventually live on the mainland.

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