Ririe High School leader wins Distinguished Student Award

Jake Wilson’s outstanding school spirit is one of the reasons administrators say they say they nominated him for the Idaho Dairy Farm Family’s Distinguished Student Award.

Wilson’s involvement in school activities is one indication of school spirit. He’s on the football, basketball and track teams. He’s proud to be from Ririe and thinks school spirit extends to the whole community.

“I think you should be proud of where you grew up,” Wilson said. “They did everything to raise you and make you the person you are, so it’s only giving back to the community.”

Wilson says he loves being involved in sports for two main reasons — the memories you make and the lessons you learn.

“Definitely work ethic — being able to work hard and never give up, and to keep pursuing what your goal is, and to keep trying, and just always get back on your feet,” Wilson said.

Along with being a talented athlete, Wilson is a trumpet player in pep band.

While he is involved in music and sports, Wilson realizes academics is the most important part of high school, so he strives for good grades and gets them.

“Without academics it’s very hard to achieve your goals and to get higher in life,” Wilson said.

One of Wilson’s most rewarding activities is being involved in student government as student body president. Besides heading up activities like homecoming, he sees a greater role for the president.

“Trying to see if I can get a smile on people’s faces, because high school’s hard enough, I don’t like them to feel down or anything like that, I just like to see a smile on someone’s face,” Wilson said.