By Shirley Shuman
The son of Matthew and Sherry Byerly, Nicholas Byerly is ready for the future. He will attend West Virginia University, where he plans to major in neuroscience. Explaining his choice of major, Byerly said, “The brain has always fascinated me, and I’ve also always liked helping people. I chose WVU because it’s the only school that offers the major I want.” He will follow with medical school and will probably become a neurologist.
Byerly is quite excited about getting into the HCOP program at WVU. Actually, he rates it as the most exciting thing that has ever happened to him. He explained that only 25 students are admitted into this program, three weeks long during the summer, where the selected students take a class, and if they pass, each receives $2500 from the university. In addition, the university pays for everything for those selected.
“This program is to help students going into a healthcare major get a head start and also meet the professors they’ll be learning with. The requirements are that you must be someone entering a healthcare profession major who has shown great academic success and who may qualify as being an underprivileged student.”
Byerly’s choice for his favorite class is College Biology taught by instructor Jill Lemon. “It was so much more than regular biology, It always kept me active and made me pay attention because it interested me just to be able to understand the concepts,” he said.
Allie Suesli is his favorite teacher because “she’s always had a supportive role in [his] life since [he’s] been in high school, and she’s had an important part in shaping members of the senior class.”
Byerly explained that he has not been involved in high school activities. “I work full time at KFC five days a weeks, sometimes until eleven o’clock so I have little time for activities,” he explained. He does like to paint, mostly landscapes, and he plays piano.
It’s at his work place where Byerly found the most interesting person he knows—the manager of the restaurant, Maria Carpenter. He said of his choice, “She’s the most interesting person to me because she has offered me insights in life and helped me with personal growth and has displayed acts of kindness beyond selfless, i.e. taking in two of her employees as her own children after complex situations at their house left them homeless.”
Mark Byerly is ready and eager for the next step in his life. “I’m excited to see where my life goes,” he remarked.
