By Shirley Shuman
When Wyatt Dennison, a Cub Scout at that time, was in the first grade, he told his mother he wanted to become an Eagle Scout. He has achieved that goal. The son of Byron and Amber Dennison, he explained that the road to Eagle Scout was not easy, and he’s proud that he fulfilled that ambition.
Although he started work on the Eagle Scout degree early, because of “a lot of issues,” it proved difficult.” For one, his father was diagnosed with a serious disease. The other was the weather. “I wanted to build something on top of a swamp,” he noted, “but bad weather often kept me from working.” What he actually had to do to begin was drain the swamp, a task not easily completed in rainy weather. He did finish draining the swamp and then he built a fire pit on top of the drained swamp. It took two years to complete his Eagle Scout project.
Dennison will attend West Virginia University this fall to double-major in mechanical and electrical engineering. He is also interested in audio engineering because he would like to have a career in sound engineering especially to work with music. This young man plays the trumpet and the piano and also composes music.
Because he will study engineering, his favorite classes in high school have been the pre-engineering classes. “These classes will definitely help me later on,” he explained.
Dennison chose Allie Suesli as his favorite teacher because, he said, “She had my back.” He said that he took an online class in foreign languages and ran into a problem receiving a grade in the class. “I was told I could work at my own pace,” he explained, “but at the end of the first semester, I was told that I hadn’t completed the course.” He didn’t understand the situation because he had been told to work at his own pace, but those offering the course maintained he should have finished another segment. He went to the guidance counselor and Mrs.Suesli , his facilitator. “In some way, they managed to gain another week for me,” he said, “and I finished the course.”
Along with his favorite teacher, Dennison was asked to name the most interesting person he has known. He chose his mother and explained why. . “She faced lots of adversity in her childhood and early adult life. She was told that she would never finish college or be able to do anything she wanted to succeed in. She instead threw all of that aside and graduated college along with a having a seven and a three year old. It just really shows me that anything I put my mind to I can succeed at.”
Among his activities in high school, he listed band for five years and FBLA for four. He explained that he had been in the BCHS band in his eighth grade year. Dennison’s hobbies include singing and composing music, playing video games, and hunting.
Wyatt Dennison has shown that he can set a goal and conquer difficulties to reach that goal. He will surely use that drive and determination to reach his goal of becoming a sound engineer in the music business.
