Whisenant’s Curse Has Turned Into A Blessing

No one knew that the curse was within him. No one could imagine who he would become.

Years have passed.

It’s dark. Quiet. But soon a screech will pierce through the air, waking Senior Josh Whisenant at 5:30 a.m. As it does every day.

The curse begins.

He swims for just over an hour, showers and races to school for his I.B. and A.P. classes.

The curse pulses rapidly.

Right after the bell rings, he greets the waters again. At 5:30 p.m. he starts his bundle of homework, followed by two hours of practicing the piano.

He sleeps.

The cycle repeats. The curse can never be undone.

Whisenant knows he doesn’t have a normal teenage life.

He blames it on the curse.

“I’m kind of cursed with ambition,” Whisenant said. “I have the mentality where when I have some extra time, I find something that I need to work on.”

He is the Sterling Scholar for Social Sciences and in addition to being passionate about academics, sport and music, Whisenant is zealous about education. He is the student representative on the Salt Lake City School District’s Board of Education. He attends long meetings and thinks deeply about the needs of students, despite his schedule. Whisenant wants to change things and won’t hesitate to voice his concerns.

“He tunes in to what’s being discussed, he cares; it actually matters to him. He likes to get involved and he likes to make a difference,” Highland teacher Monica French, who has taught Whisenant for three years, said.

That’s probably what attracted him to the position on the Board of Education. Even though, as Whisenant said, “the nature of the position is to be rubberstamped,” and nothing is really expected of him, Whisenant has ideas, and he wants to do more than be the member who doesn’t vote. He said the district is doing a good job with its limited resources, and there are positive programs going into action in schools. However, as with anything, there can be improvements.

He envisions smaller class sizes and he feels that there are some disconnects within the system. Students don’t know who is on the board, what their names are or what they do, but in the end, they are the people making the decisions that will affect students. Whisenant has the idea of building a process enabling students to better connect with the board, but he said it is difficult to start from scratch. He takes his position on the board very seriously, as he does with everything else.

Even with his course load of five I.B. classes, AP Calculus BC and AP Physics, Whisenant swims for 15 hours a week and plays piano for another 20. He first started playing the piano when he was seven years old and has come a long way since then. He won first place in the University of Utah SummerArts solo competition in 2014 and in 2013 won first in the University of Utah International Piano Festival. He  increases his practice time to three hours a day a couple of weeks before the competitions, and even misses some school to meet with his piano teacher. Along with playing piano during the week, Whisenant also goes to a competitive music school, the Gifted Music School, every Saturday from 8:00 am to 3:00 pm, taught by graduates from Julliard.

The curse is definitely real.

In addition to piano, he is the boy’s swim captain this year. His time for the 500 yard free style was five minutes last year at the 2014 Speedo Champions Series in Federal Way, WA, and at the Pacific NW Speedo Sectionals (the high school state championships) he got third place in the 100 fly when swimming for the club Swim Utah.

Along with being an athlete, he’s social as well.

“You’ll see him on the swim team talking to everyone he knows, all the freshmen, he knows their names,” junior Eva Gontrum, a friend of Whisenant for six years, said.

These extracurricular activities and social buzzing don’t take away from his academics, however.

When he was a junior his friend and he, Matthew Wilson, took I.B. Chemistry with Ms. French at lunch because they had already taken AP Chemistry the year before and had done exceptionally well.

“[In the classroom] he invests, he works hard, he always goes to the deeper level, and he tries to make sense of what he’s doing,” French said. “He causes some energy around him and everyone else feels like they have to rise to the cause.”

He not only creates energy around him but also within himself. For the ACT Whisenant worked hard taking practice tests every Sunday morning. His determination was partly fueled by the realization that a good score could open many doors for him in life.

Whisenant is pretty self-motivated in general. He’s the kind of person that reads an 800-page book about bridges, as Gontrum remembered from his freshmen year. He sought out an internship at the Nuclear Department at the University of Utah on his own. Whisenant even spent 15 hours plugging information from a 60-page file into a computer program. He stuck with it, persevering through those many pages. Unfortunately, it was later discovered he didn’t have to go through all that work, but he learned to understand collaboration and how to work around problems.

“He’s so enthusiastic about life and learning,” Gontrum said.

Whisenant sees no reason the world can’t change or be a better place, and he doesn’t let anyone tell him it can’t.

“He pursues what he wants and he doesn’t get too discouraged if the first time he wants to do something, he gets a no, he’s OK with that, he pushes forward,” French said.

The curse has brought him far and to the words of Whisenant, “I really want to go out and change the world.”

And there’s no doubt he will. For the time being though, he is hoping to start with the school district.