Wade and Wall: Auburn High grads bound for success | Class of ’15

Published 12:04 pm Wednesday, June 10, 2015

When McKenna Wall graduates from Auburn High on Sunday, she’ll be one of the younger ones there to do so.

Nothing odd about that. Wall, 17, has always been a step ahead of the pack, academically and on the pitch.

“I’ve always been ‘The Young One’ on the team,” said Wall, who played varsity soccer all four of her high school years and was captain this year with two other seniors,

Next fall this accomplished, unusually focused young woman is off to study business at the University of Washington.

“I am a very academically-oriented person: with me, it’s grades before everything else,” Wall said.

Her favorite class has been DECA, which taught her everything she knows about business.

“It’s given me real-life experience and school experience, and it’s really helped me narrow my choice, made me want to pursue business. It’s helped me speak in front of crowds, where I used to be really nervous. My teacher, Miss Jacobs, really helped me out. She’s driven to help kids in and out of school,” Wall said.

This year Wall was named Washington DECA member of the year

“There are 11,000 people in DECA in Washington, so being named the top person was pretty cool,” she said.

Her ambition is to be a buyer or purchaser at Nordstrom, or to run public relations for some sports team in the area.

That’s a lot of ambition.

“My mother and father didn’t go to college,” Wall explained. “I have an older sister, and in raising us, our parents made it their mission to have us get good grades, and go to college, and set a new example in our family. My older sister is the first person in my family to go to college.”

Indeed, her parents have been behind her every step of the way.

“They barely missed any of my soccer games over the past 14 years or so that I’ve played. They’re always there at award nights. They’re always there to encourage me at anything they can go to. They’re always saying, ‘You can do it,’ and encouraging me when I doubt myself,” Wall said.

Wall said it’s been exciting to be a member of the first class to graduate from the new Auburn High School.

“It’s been an adjustment,” she said. “It’s been weird having things that work.”

Avery Wade

First thing folks notice about Auburn High senior Avery Wade is his smile.

Infectious, radiant, about as constant as a smile can be.

Here’s a guy smiles even when he isn’t smiling, laughs easily, dances when he eats — “you just take a bite, do a little movement here and there” — practically glows.

Indeed, it would take some doing not to like Wade right away. And to keep from marveling how a guy can be so happy all the time.

“I don’t know how to explain it,” he said, smiling.

Behind the smile is a young man driven to succeed, one who has spent his high school years building up the academic and sports chops to make success happen.

On top of carrying a 3.98 grade point average, he has been involved in basketball, football and track for all four of his years at Auburn High. He hopes, he said, to walk onto the University of Washington track team next fall as a high jumper.

“Sports are fun, but my main focus is grades,” Wade said. “I’m very academically oriented. I love the labs that we do in chemistry, and the curriculum is great.”

He wants to study science, biology or chemistry in college.

“I want to be a pediatrician. Being in the medical field is my whole deal,” Wade said.

He credits his parents, Danielle and Alphonse, for their support.

“My parents are very family oriented. Everything I do has always been oriented toward my family. They support me in all my academics and sports. They’re very strict when it comes to grades,” Wade said.

Wade’s only academic blemish, he says with rare regret, is the A-minus he received one quarter in Spanish, the infamous mark that kept him from a perfect 4.0.

“My parents don’t like A-minuses. It stresses me out that we don’t have extra credits so I can’t raise my grade. My parents stress how important grades are to continuing my education in college, and they are very excited to see me start at the UW in the fall,” Wade said.