Student of the month: Tom Dirks


MHS senior Tom Dirks was named Student of the Month for December. Dirks was nominated for exhibiting responsibility and being polite to students and staff. Dirks enjoys staying active in marching and concert band. Here he plays the baritone during the fall marching band competition at the Wilton Festival of Bands. (Express file photo)
By: 
Kim Brooks
Express Editor

     Each month, Monticello High School nominates a student who exhibits positive behavior, as part of an initiative called PBIS (Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports). The students support the school’s characteristics of Respect, Responsibility, Caring, Safety, and Integrity.

     MHS senior Tom Dirks was named Student of the Month for December. Dirks was nominated by teacher Mary Jane Maher for “demonstrating responsibility and being helpful and polite” toward other students and staff. Maher stated, “Tom in genuinely a nice person.”

     Dirks said he found out about the honor from Maher, his homeroom teacher, after she e-mailed him the last day of school before winter break.

     “I don’t classify this as an honor,” Dirks said honestly. “It’s a symbol of gratitude. Respect goes a long way. If you show respect, you’ll get it in return.”

     Dirks said he’s not afraid to show his true self as being respectful and a nice guy to be around at school.

     “I just appreciate what the teachers do for us,” he said. “If we don't show them respect, they can’t do their jobs.”

     Dirks credits his parents, Dennis and Michelle Dirks of Monticello, with instilling the importance of being a decent person in life.

     “They raised me to be responsible,” he said.

     With one semester remaining until graduation, Dirks said he already sees his senior year winding down. He spends his mornings at the high school and the remainder of his school days at Kirkwood’s Jones Regional Center in the advanced manufacturing and welding academies. He started taking classes at Kirkwood just this year and already has his NIMS (National Institute for Metalworking Skills) certification. This allows Dirks the ability to run CNC machinery.

     After high school, Dirks plans to attend Kirkwood’s main campus in Cedar Rapids to continue perfecting his welding skills. Over the summer, he was approached by a representative with the American Welding Society at the Iowa State Fair.

     “He told me when I get certified we’d talk (about job offers),” shared Dirks.

     Dirks stays busy with several extra curricular activities: FFA, golf, concert band, and marching band, playing the baritone. After Christmas break, he plans to take up the guitar as part of jazz band.

     When Dirks was in middle school he started taking guitar lessons with music teacher Donna Wall. He’s been teaching himself as well.

     “Music has been a part of my life since I was a little kid,” Dirks said. “My music classes at Sacred Heart opened my eyes to a new world of music and different instruments I could play.”

     Dirks joined band in fifth grade and stayed with it all through high school.

     He spends his free time practicing guitar and hanging out with his fellow classmates.

     Dirks also helps out on the farm of Randy and Deb Toenjes from time to time.

 

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