Bellevue High grads talk pride, pandemic – and pizza

BY GARIN PIRNIA | LINK nky CONTRIBUTOR

From sixth to 12th grade, Steven Meyers has attended Bellevue High School, a small school with an enrollment of less than 400 students and a graduating class of 43. Earlier in his school career he struggled with poor grades, and a few educators didn’t believe in him.

“I had a bunch of teachers tell me I wouldn't be able to make it and I wouldn't survive out in the real world,” he said. “As soon as I hit freshman year, I'm like, I could do this. Now, I want to look back at those teachers who told me I couldn't do it and tell them, ‘I proved you wrong.’ ”

In sixth and eighth grade he got Fs, but now he will be graduating with As and Bs. He admits he used to be lackadaisical with his studies, but a football coach named Bones Egan gave him the push he needed.

“He pulled me aside one day and was like, ‘I feel like you could do better,’ ” Meyers said.

“ ‘I want you to do better, and I believe in you.’ And that's what really got me to liking school.”

His business teacher, Christie McDonald –who had Steven his freshman and sophomore years and, as it turns out, is a distant relative – has become a good friend.

“A lot of times kids might hear five positives and one negative, and unfortunately, it's the negative that’s going to sit with them longer,” McDonald said. “You have to keep building the positives up to overcome that negative, and that’s probably what’s happened with Steven.”

Instead of looking only at academics, she said she targets the whole person.

“My goal with my students is what can I do with you from the time you walk in the building as a freshman to the time you walk out as a senior so that you’re prepared for the real world and a real job,” she said. “Ste- ven might have been the student who, if he couldn’t finish the quadratic formula, he was okay with that. But everything we did in my class mattered in his life, so I think that’s what established our connection.”

This spring, Meyers will wrap up his track and field season; he has excelled at shot put, javelin and discus. At April’s Grant County Dorning Friday Night Lights Invitational, he placed first in javelin, second in discus and fifth in shot put.

“Throwing for track is probably one of my favorite things that I’ve ever done in high school,” he said.

Emma Laurenti, who also attends Bellevue High School, knows Meyers through the track team. She competes in the 100-meter and 200-meter dash and also does long-jumping.

“Steven’s very nice (and so is) his family,” she said. “I noticed he’s killing it at track.”

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Laurenti is a foreign exchange student from Milan, Italy. In August, she arrived in Bellevue as part of the International Student Exchange program. Her host mother, Beth Williams, is the regional adviser for the Hoosier Hills region.

“I always wanted to study abroad, and I got this opportunity last year to apply for it,” Laurenti said. “I didn’t really get to choose the state. You choose the continent. I chose the USA.”

At first, the language barrier frustrated her. “I wasn't used to talking English all day long,” she said. The students asked her questions like: “Do you have cars in Italy?”

Though Laurenti’s Italian high school career lasts five years, not four, she will graduate from Bellevue and return to Italy to finish her final year. She said school in the U.S. has been quite different from school in her hometown. She has more fun at Bellevue and learns in more creative ways. The grading system is different, too – in Italy it’s based on numbers one through 10, with 10 being equivalent to an A. In both countries, she gets As.

“We do scavenger hunts about learning,” she said, “so I enjoy this fun approach to studying, while back home it’s more like you listen to the teacher having a lesson about something. You take notes about it, and that’s it.”

In the past school year, not only has she run track, but she’s also played on Bellevue’s basketball, volleyball, soccer and tennis teams. In Italy, she focused on volleyball, but her school there doesn’t offer team sports.

“If you want to play at a competitive level, you have to sign up for a club,” she said. “You don't really get to play and try new sports. Here, I really enjoyed experiencing new sports and meeting new people and having fun with them.”

Her 18th birthday falls on graduation day, May 26, and she plans on celebrating with her host family.

“I'm really looking forward to graduation,” she said. “I don't really know what to expect. I know that it’s a big deal here.”

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On May 30, she’ll head back to Italy and finish out the remaining school year. She’s unsure where she’ll go to college or what she’ll study, but she’s interested in sports reporting.

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