SINCLAIRVILLE - Hunter Caskey is a junior and honor roll student who has achieved academic success at Cassadaga Valley Central School.
While Hunter excels in all areas of study, he prefers the subject of science because of its relevance to his career choice.
"I like science classes a lot," said Hunter. "I like the idea of how we can use technology to help people improve their lives and health. I've wanted to be a doctor since I was little because I wanted to be called, 'Doctor Caskey.' But aside from the obvious reasons to be a doctor, you get to help people, meet a lot of people, work with people and it's good pay. It's a good career to go into and it's something that America will be needing a lot more of in the near future."
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Hunter Caskey
Hunter's interest in the medical field is primarily focused on pediatrics, because he likes working with children.
He is enrolled in all possible Regents classes, including chemistry and Algebra II trigonometry. He is also taking college-level math and problem solving and will be taking college-level statistics and psychology next semester.
Hunter has 12 college credits at the halfway point of his junior year and he is on track to be well above the 22 required for graduation from high school.
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He has considered participating in the State University at Fredonia's 3-1-3 program, which constitutes three years of high school, with his senior year being a transition year split between high school and college courses and three years of undergrad school. He is expecting to have enough credits to bypass his freshman year of college.
His current plan is to remain local for his undergraduate college studies, attending either SUNY Fredonia or the University at Buffalo before moving on to grad school elsewhere.
Hunter keeps a busy schedule by participating in a laundry list of extracurricular activities.
He is currently the president of student council, the captain of his quiz bowl team, the editor of the school yearbook and an inductee of National Honor Society. He has also been involved in jazz band, valley minstrels, concert band and senior high chorus.
He has performed in three of Cassadaga Valley's high school musicals and the Thespian Society, which required two to three years of participation in musicals as well as an application. He has also performed in a musical at the Lucille Ball Little Theater. He is coming up on his third year of playing tennis.
According to Tara DiDomenico, principal of CVCS, Hunter comes recommended by his National Honor Society adviser, Mrs. Diamond.
"She said, 'Hunter is by far the best and he is the one that I would want to pick,'" said DiDomenico. "She is the one who looks at all of the students who are going to be inducted and all the criteria that goes into it such as service, character and grades. So, he's been inducted and she feels that he is the best of the inductees. He's doing very well and he's been on honor roll for every quarter. We're very proud of him."
Currently, Hunter maintains an unweighted grade point average of 98.19 and a weighted GPA of 100.04.