M-P pair named students of the month

MARYSVILLE – Grayce Federspiel and Leonardo Jaramillo of Marysville-Pilchuck High School are the March Students of the Month as voted on by the Marysville Soroptimist and Kiwanis clubs.

Federspiel plans to go to Oregon State University in Corvallis next year and major in business. She has gotten business experience by working the past two years at Seattle Premium Outlets, first at Calvin Klein and now at Express. She recently turned 18 and was promoted to part-time manager. The company is all about customer service, and she coaches others in that. She admits it gets a little hard when the workers are older than her.

“It’s nice having a job to see what it’s like to work,” she said. Federspiel said she doesn’t have to work; her parents tell her she has her whole life for that. But she likes making money.

She is president of the school’s National Honor Society with a 3.84 grade point average, and she’s done a lot of volunteering through that. She helps one of her former teachers in a fifth-grade class at Grove Elementary. She’s also volunteered with Eagle Wings, including at a Saint Patrick’s Day run Saturday. And she has volunteered at three summer day camps run by the Marysville parks department.

Earlier at M-P, she played junior varsity soccer and tennis. This year she also is senior class vice president.

While she is VP, Jaramillo is president of the senior class. That is especially impressive since he went to Arlington High his freshman year, so has been at M-P for just three years.

He is a standout on the soccer team, making All-Wesco 1st team as a defender last year. He is captain of the team.

“I like to talk on the field,” he said, showing his leadership on the squad.

He is getting a full ride scholarship to play next year in Coos Bay at Southwestern Oregon Community College. He’s not sure what he wants to do for a career, but he is thinking about becoming an airplane pilot.

For community service, Jaramillo spent a lot of hours working at the Marysville Food Bank last fall. “I was happy to help,” he said, adding he felt bad for some of the clients because he could see, “Life is tough.”

He said he came out of his comfort zone to run for class president.

“I could never imagine me doing a speech like that,” he said, adding his friends urged him to go for it.

As for his speech, he said he encouraged his fellow students “to be more like a family.”