Best and Brightest: Committed to community service
This is the 11th of a series of 20 profiles of The Gazette’s Best and Brightest Class of 2019.
Emmy Hendricks visited her dying grandparents every day. Later, she extended that compassion to strangers, delivering meals to terminally ill patients through a charity. She feared for her own life once when co-piloting a small plane.
She says those experiences have helped her appreciate the small moments that give life color. They have also helped her focus on how she will shape her career as a civil engineer.
Her Air Academy High School counselor describes Hendricks as a go-to leader for volunteer projects, a nurturer. Hendricks heads the school’s volunteer club, and created a letter program, much like in sports, where students gain honor for service.
Her penchant for community service strangely enough began when she was 4 years old and competed in the Pikes Peak or Bust Rodeo’s Mutton Bustin’ competition. She flew head over heels on that first attempt at riding a sheep. She began volunteering at age 11. The event raises money for military families. In 2018, she was named volunteer of the year.
Her helping has been very personal, too. Her grandmother had Alzheimer’s, and her grandfather, Parkinson’s disease. She visited them daily at a nursing home. “It was heartbreaking to see them suffer, but they appreciated that I was there. “
She accepted other challenges. Her father, who had taken flying lessons as a teen, encouraged her to do the same. After she had taken some ground lessons, a family friend took her up in his plane and let her copilot.
“My heart was racing but it was amazing, seeing Pikes Peak from a new perspective.” But suddenly the engine sputtered, and the plane nose turned downward a bit. Her teacher landed the plane and made a minor fix. “I was terrified to get back in, but he saw it as an educational experience for me.” The rest of the trip was uneventful.
She plans to get her license, now seeing it as a way to aid her chosen career. She will study civil engineering at Colorado School of Mines. In high school, she earned a certificate in the Project Lead the Way Engineering Pathway. She interned with an architectural firm and shadowed engineers at a construction zone. Seeing a bridge being built, she later realized it was a perfect career that could combine her love of science with helping others in developing countries. Flying a plane would come in handy in rural areas.
She saw what such help can mean to those who have little. She helped deliver 600 pounds of supplies, that had been gathered by groups for villagers in South Africa.
“This boy about 5 came in and he wasn’t smiling. But then he tried on light-up Spider-Man tennis shoes. Seeing his joy fueled my desire to help developing communities.”
Civil engineering can alleviate desperate needs for clean water, roads and sanitation systems, she said.
“Villagers would not have to risk health with each sip of water, children would be able to attend school, and adults would be able to work more efficiently to provide for their families,” she said. “I want to be part of that solution.”
Air Academy High School
College plans: Colorado School of Mines
Parents: Jerry and Kelley Hendricks
Other: Principal’s Honor Roll, Varsity Color Guard Letter, Academic Letter, Pikes Peak or Bust Rodeo Mutton Bustin’ Volunteer of the Year