Rising to the top
By Eric Valentine
Rising to the top is all about drive. And Will Penrose has been making that his goal for as long as he can recall. The four-year Wood River High School soccer goalie and two-year track and field athlete hasn’t let his ACL injury stop him from the competitiveness he enjoys. Instead, he transitioned into golf and tennis, and has volunteer coached a U10 soccer team since he was in the 10th grade.
“I enjoy the team bonding and the friendships created in all these sports,” Penrose said. “But the competitive nature and the drive to be the best is truly the most fulfilling aspect of all these athletics.”
Penrose was born in China and adopted by Mike and Nancy Penrose when he was 5 years old. He has lived in the Valley since 2007 and has a deep appreciation for “the relationship between nature and community” here.
“What I’m going to miss though, as I leave, are the friendships and the memories made, but I’m excited to create new ones and reflect on the old ones,” said Penrose, who plans to attend either Western Washington University or the University of Oregon.
He’ll go there with goals.
“My lifelong goal is to get a degree in marine biology, work out in the field making new discoveries, and from there I’m not quite sure. Hopefully, expand my passion for photography and possibly get a Ph.D. in biology,” Penrose said.
And he’ll go there prepared.
“I am taking A.P. Government, A.P. Physics, A.P. Biology and A.P. Calculus,” Penrose said.
His GPA is 4.0.
“There are many things I’d like to change about the world, but if I had to focus on just one thing, I’d like to make it more renewable—fight climate change and be one of the dutiful curators of this planet, as we should be,” Penrose said.
In the meantime, Penrose appreciates who he is and what he has become. He takes pride in his 71-year-old dad—Mike—a retired pilot who can be found skiing and biking around the Valley; his mom, Nancy, who is a physical therapist at St. Luke’s; and his sister, Niki, who recently graduated from Arizona State University and is now back in the Valley working on her EMD license as part of her effort to becoming a member of the ski patrol.
“In a community mostly made up of a Latino and Caucasian demographic, I think my ethnicity, Chinese, has brought an interesting perspective to who I’ve become,” Penrose observed. “It’s being different that defines individuals and I feel like I’ve been blessed to be quite literally different in many aspects.”
Editor’s Note: Anyone who would like to recommend a Blaine County School District student for the Wood River Weekly’s “Student Spotlight” feature should contact news@woodriverweekly.com.