Editor’s note: The Future Leaders of America series profiles high school seniors who display leadership qualities in their school and the community. The series is brought to you by Pridemark Construction.
By Stacey Shannon—
MUNCIE, IN—Attending the same school from kindergarten through 12th grade is bound to create strong emotions of either love or hate. Burris Laboratory School senior Abe Arthur falls into the love category.
“The Burris community just feels like my family,” he said. “It’s all my friends I’ve known – half of my grade – since kindergarten. All my teachers I have a good connection with.”
For that reason, Arthur spends lots of time at school and is always ready to help with class activities such as fundraisers and dance set-ups. He enjoys helping out and hanging out with his friends at the same time.
Being involved with student council and a member of both the cross country and track teams, Arthur has kept busy at school. This year he is also cadet teaching in fourth grade as part of his senior pathways course. He’s not a new face popping into the classroom, though.
“For a couple of years, I’ve gone down to the fourth grade room during my lunch hour…just to play for them,” Arthur said, mentioning his love of playing guitar and writing songs. “I’ve just enjoyed being in that setting with younger students.”
Outside of school, most of his time is spent with music. He plays guitar in his church band at Urban Light Community Church and participated in the Muncie Downtown Idol competition in August that was part of Fire Up Downtown. To Arthur’s pleasant surprise, he placed first in the competition.
“It was very special to me…to win that competition,” he said. “I was just very proud of myself that I was able to achieve that. [It was] a big step.”
Arthur’s prize for winning was performing at a First Thursday downtown on Oct. 3.
“I got to just perform songs I’ve written and other songs I just like,” he said. “A lot of people showed up that I loved to have there. I’d love to pursue music and being able to get a gig was really special for me.”
Juggling sports, music and school isn’t always easy, but Arthur has no regrets. He credits a planner and his parents for keeping him on track.
“My parents help me out a lot,” he said. “I talk with them all the time, and they have just a lot of good insight about keeping my head on.”
That carries over into his plans for after high school. Arthur plans to pursue a career in music production, which is a bit less volatile than solely pursuing a career as a musician. Attending a Ball State University music production summer camp in 2024 made him realize how much he enjoys the production side of music.
He tentatively plans to attend Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tenn. Arthur’s back-up plan is attending Ball State University and becoming a teacher.
As he looks back over his years at Burris, Arthur has words of wisdom for younger students.
“Be kind to your teachers,” he said. “Take time to find out who you are. Listen to yourself and don’t shove yourself down.”
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