For CHS freshman Julius Miner, there have been many changes between Slauson, his middle school and CHS. He made the hard choice to come to CHS this year, opting to leave the “normal” path and not go to Pioneer, starting a new chapter in high school to follow his interests.
Even on his first day, Miner felt right at home walking around the painted hallways of CHS and knew that this was the school for him.
“I feel like [CHS] has kind of an artistic vibe, just looking around,” Miner said. “I wouldn’t say it’s colorful, but there’s some variety in the color.”
Since his first day at CHS, Miner has had a positive experience getting to know many of the school’s traditions, culture and ways of life.
traditions, culture and ways of life. “How you’re treated by adults… that’s definitely the biggest change,” Miner said. “I feel like it’s just better for my personal needs, at least for getting my education”
One aspect of the CHS lifestyle that Miner has been fitting into well is his forum. Just since the first day of classes, he has already established strong connections with some of his fellow forum members.
“It seems like they’ve been there the whole time, honestly,” said Michelle Yager, Miner’s forum leader. “From the very first day, I was really impressed with him.”
Miner is also in Yager’s Algebra I class, which, early in the year, has an assignment called “What is Math?” Where students tell Yager their personal definition of “math” and create a drawing representing what they think about math in general. Miner impressed Yager with his artistic prowess in his submission for the project.
“Instead of writing a description and drawing a cartoon, he had this postcard that he made in the Ann Arbor Art Fair,” Yager said.
So far, Miner’s favorite parts about CHS have been the long lunches and open campus, which allow for more freedom and responsibility.
“The longer lunches just allow you to go more places,” Miner said. “Especially with the open campus, you can really explore around the school a lot more than you could in middle school.”
Included with the expanded freedoms that CHS students have is the Community Resource (CR) program. The CR program allows students to deep dive into subjects they’re passionate about by allowing them to create their own class centered around something not offered in a traditional class. Miner is interested in taking a plane-flying CR in the future.
According to his mother, Erica Miner, Jules has always shown an interest in aviation and puts it amongst his greatest passions.
“He’s always loved and talked about wanting to be a pilot for the longest time,” Erica said. “We’re on a path to get a pilot’s license roughly around the same time that he might get a driver’s license.”
Miner has been able to gain some flight experience through an organization called the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA), which allows its members to pilot flights. It also provides free lessons and access to over 300 aviation-related museums across the United States. EAA also provides access to an online video library to learn skill development.
“Whenever I fly, I feel like I’m one with the plane,” Miner said. “Once you get into that, you can never go back. Instead of just feeling like the plane went through turbulence, it feels like you personally went through turbulence.”
But flying is far from Miner’s only passion. Since elementary school, Miner has found a creative outlet in drawing.
“[Elementary school] was a lot, and it was noise and chaos and pushing and shoving and talking and learning all these rules and that’s when we started to see that Julius was struggling with something, and we later learned it was ADHD and dyslexia,” Erica said. “Before we knew that, it was a jumble, and drawing, I think, was a way for him to communicate when other ways didn’t work with all these people.”
“The only reason why I actually started [drawing] was because it allowed me to kind of get away from it all, mainly just the stress of having a lot of people around me, [which] was kind of chaotic,” Miner said.
Now, Miner takes a two-hour art class every weekend, where he focuses on creating complex pieces. He usually doodles during school, but the art class allows him to properly dive into an individual piece and put time and thought into it.
Even off the page, Miner has found that being an artist has a huge influence on his life. He believes it has given him the ability to look more deeply into things and see what others may not.
“Whenever I look at stuff, I’m always focusing,” Miner said. “I don’t know if this is just the artistic part of me, but I look at all the fine detail.”
Now that he is at CHS, he’s found that the school aligns with his values of creativity and freedom. Both he and his mother are happy that he chose to come to CHS and are pleased with how he is fitting in well in his forum, in clubs, in the culture and of CHS as a whole.
“I think he has been doing great,” Erica said. “The truth is, if any of my kids love school and come home happy and with smiles on their faces, that’s awesome.”
