When Jessica Ogden was in first grade at the Academy, her teacher, Barbara Karle, asked the students to draw what they wanted to be when they grew up. “I drew a stick figure in a lab coat with a beaker,” Jessica said. That stick figure was a veterinarian.

“I always knew I wanted to be a veterinarian,” Jessica explained, and she is well on her way to achieving that dream. After graduating from GPA in 2001, Jessica went on to attend Grosse Pointe South. During her high school career she served as a class senator for all four years, played volleyball (following three years of middle school volleyball), was a member of the National Honor Society, and graduated in the Academic Hall of Fame with a 4.2 grade point average. Now a junior at Michigan State University Honors College, Jessica received the ADS Scholarship, MSU’s most competitive merit-based scholarship, and was recently accepted to MSU’S College of Veterinary Medicine through a competitive early admission program.

Jessica attributes a lot of her success “to the strong education foundation I received at GPA.” Her innate interest in science flourished at the Academy. “I’m a zoologist now, and I will hear things in a college class and remember learning about that at the Academy. For example, in a microbiology class once the professor touched on the effect of lake toxins on microorganisms and I remembered learning about that in Mr. Fultz’s environmental science class.”

Making a model of carbon in seventh grade chemistry class with Michelle Roberts also came in handy. “Six or seven years down the road there I was at MSU taking organic chemistry, which is carbon based, and learning a lot more about it than I ever imagined.”

Jessica benefitted from early instruction in other subjects as well. “The French program was fabulous. I am forever indebted to Mrs. Vitolins because I pursued several 300 level French classes in college. I considered minoring in French, but don’t have room in my schedule because of all the science requirements.” While at South she achieved “Lauréat National” designation from the Concours National de Français for excellence in the study of French. She also placed second in the state and ninth in the nation on the 2003 Level 2 National French exam.

Another favorite subject was social studies. Jessica recalls the study skills she learned from Mary Jo Johnson, in particular scrupulous note-taking. “I love that woman!” she says. “All of my teachers influenced me strongly in different ways, but Mrs. Johnson was probably my favorite!”

Jessica has a lot she still plans to accomplish before she starts at MSU’S College of Veterinary Medicine in the fall of 2009. Over the spring semester she will serve as a teaching assistant for a 300-level zoology course. This summer she will travel to Kenya, and next winter break she hopes to make it to the Antarctica. (Traveling is old hat to Jessica, who  spent two weeks on a volunteer work project on Kangaroo Island in Australia.) Plans down the road after veterinary school include an internship and residence in surgery, orthopedics or oncology. She has a strong interest in marine mammals and wildlife rehabilitation. “Ideally I would do that all my life,” she says. “I would love to save the otters!” For the time being, however, she is “keeping” her “options open.”