By By KEVIN SCOTT CUTLER
Lifestyles & Features Editor
YEATESVILLE — Northside High School senior Sydney Colbert is a humble, hard-working student who has a positive attitude and is honest.
Those traits earned her a spot in the Washington Daily News/Beaufort County Schools Teen Spotlight.
“Sydney is very quiet but always willing to volunteer to help with whatever needs to be done, whether it is cleaning up after lab or helping a fellow student,” said Sandra McCann, who teaches Colbert in the honors biology class. “She has been a low-A student in my class, never quite making that top grade. This nine weeks, she decided she was going to get better grades.”
The result of that determination was making the top grade on the last two major tests.
“Sydney is a primary example of how effort and determination can pay off,” McCann said. “This serves as a role model for her fellow students. She does not let it go to her head and brag to her classmates, as do some students, so I would like to recognize her efforts.”
A member of the Northside Beta Club and HOSA (health-occupations club), Colbert wants to attend East Carolina University and become a labor-and-delivery nurse. Her high-school studies are giving her a jump on her chosen career.
“After we’ve taken Allied Health I and Allied Health II, we can be a nursing assistant when we graduate. You just have to take the test at Beaufort County Community College,” Colbert said. “I’ve always wanted to help with babies in the nursery. I’ve always loved babies.”
Colbert works at O’Neal’s Cellular in Belhaven after school and on weekends, so that leaves little time for extracurricular activities.
“I don’t play sports,” she said. “I just focus on my grades.”
The 17-year-old daughter of Wayne and Lora Colbert of Pantego, she has an older sister, Chelsey, and younger brother, Johnny. Colbert attends Union Grove Church of Christ, where she is involved in the basic Bible-study class.
“It’s been the best year,” she said of her life since joining the church. “I got baptized. It’s been a good year.”
Colbert also finds time to be active in her community.
“I think more students should get involved in rec-league activities after school,” she said. “I’ve coached rec volleyball in Belhaven for three years, and that’s something that I’d like to see others participate in, helping with younger kids.”
Colbert said her work with children has been rewarding.
“Watching them grow and get better by the end of the season, it’s amazing to see that,” she said.
::JUMP sidebar::
All about Sydney Colbert …
*Grade and school: senior, Northside High School.
*Birthday: April 2.
*Favorite book: “The Bible.”
*Favorite class: Allied Health.
*Favorite movie: “I like comedy movies.”
*Favorite TV show: “Big Brother.”
*Favorite food: “I like all food, except for seafood.”
*Favorite entertainer: Marilyn Monroe.
*Dream vacation: Hawaii.
*Hobbies: Attending church and shopping for clothes.
*If she could spend a day with anyone in history, it would be: “Marilyn Monroe, because I think she’s a very interesting person. She sang, modeled and acted, and I think she’d be an interesting person to spend the day with.”