{"id":10594,"date":"2019-02-22T18:35:27","date_gmt":"2019-02-22T18:35:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=10594"},"modified":"2019-02-22T18:35:27","modified_gmt":"2019-02-22T18:35:27","slug":"alexandra-brooks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2019\/02\/22\/alexandra-brooks\/","title":{"rendered":"ALEXANDRA BROOKS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good books, says Brooks, <\/i><\/span>made a big difference<\/i><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

By Emilee Mae Struss<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
Alexandra Brooks grew up skiing on water and snow, both of which she has dropped for wakeboarding and snowboarding. Photo credit: Alyssa Carlson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

W<\/span>ood River High School senior Alexandra Brooks took a break from public school in second grade when her parents chose to homeschool the struggling young reader.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was one of the youngest in my grade,\u201d Brooks said. \u201cAnd I got stressed out with all the things we had to do.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Today, Brooks is proud to share that she is now one of the top readers in her class and steadily holds a 4.0 GPA. She attributes her improvement in reading to simply finding books she enjoys.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI found books like \u2018The Maze Runner\u2019 that were super captivating,\u201d Brooks said. \u201cAnd then I just didn\u2019t want to stop reading.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Brooks re-entered public school in eighth grade and her interest and skills in English and languages have since excelled. She says she realizes in hindsight that it was a \u201cmind-over-matter\u201d type of situation. Brooks is currently enrolled in Astronomy, Government, English, War & Modern World, Applied Math and A.P. Art.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI really like art,\u201d Brooks said. \u201cThis year it has been fun to work with different mediums and making things look like they are moving on two-dimensional paper.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Brooks also likes to run. She joined the track and field team in elementary school and picked it up again upon returning to public school. She competes in the 100-meter dash, 200-meter dash and the long jump.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy favorite event is the 100,\u201d Brooks said. \u201cI definitely like the shorter races.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In the summertime, Brooks shared that she and her family travel almost every weekend to a spot in Hagerman along the Snake River. The location lacks cell service but not recreational opportunities. It\u2019s where Brooks learned to waterski and wakeboard. She enjoys snow skiing but has also made the transition to snowboarding, which she describes as similar to the movement of wakeboarding.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really nice to transition into snowboarding because I already had a feel for it from learning to wakeboard,\u201d Brooks said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Brooks says that the transition from homeschooling to public school was made easy because of her friendly peers at Wood River High School. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a very spirited school,\u201d Brooks said. \u201cThere is something for everyone at our school.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Next year, Brooks plans to attend Boise State University to study psychology. She has used her mind to power over an obstacle that once seemed impossible to defeat. And now, she is embarking on a journey to discover just how powerful the human mind really is.<\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s Note: Anyone who would like to recommend a Blaine County School District student for The Weekly Sun\u2019s \u201cStudent Spotlight\u201d feature should contact Emilee Struss at emilee.struss@gmail.com.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Good books, says Brooks, made a big difference By Emilee Mae Struss Wood River High School senior Alexandra Brooks took a break from public school in second grade when her parents chose to homeschool the struggling young reader. \u201cI was one of the youngest in my grade,\u201d Brooks said. \u201cAnd I got stressed out with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9332,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,41],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-10594","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sponsored","8":"category-student-spotlight"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}