“I’m excited about what I can bring to the table for Key Club,” Victory Christian junior Savannah Smith said about her new role as division lieutenant governor.

Ask Savannah Smith what she plans to do after she finishes high school, and you’re likely to get a broad smile and an answer that would make a parent proud.

“Well, I’ve gone back and forth between teaching and nursing,” she said, “but my whole life, my mom’s been a nurse.  Seeing the light it brings to her eyes to help people, I want to have that light too.  So I hope to go to nursing school, get my doctorate, work as a nurse, and hopefully be able to teach nursing after that.”

Sharon Smith, a nurse for 30 years who serves as executive director of Lakeside Hospice, believes her daughter will be a natural.  “She’s lived it with me.  In grade school, she was always the first one to put a Band-Aid on anybody’s boo-boo.”

But first Savannah, currently a junior, has to finish her senior year at Victory Christian School during which she will serve as Division 4 lieutenant governor of the Key Club.  Sitting at her mom’s desk Tuesday morning during her spring break, she explained what the office would involve and why service to others is important to her.

Lt. Gov. Savannah Smith:  She was elected to the position this month and will be inducted during the club’s convention next month in Birmingham.  Her duties will include preparing a monthly newsletter and visiting each school’s Key Club in her division to encourage and assist with their service projects.  “I’m excited about what I can bring to the table for Key Club, and I’m looking forward to motivating clubs to do what they need to do.”

About Key Club:  “It’s a service organization for high school students,” Smith said.  “Its motto is ‘Caring…Is Our Way of Life.’  At Victory Christian, we have 81 members, and we have to put in at least 50 volunteer hours a year.”  She has served as ninth grade representative, secretary and vice-president of the local club.

Among her other activities:  Smith serves as secretary of Victory’s Student Government Association and is a varsity cheerleader.  She’s a member of a competition dance team at Starrz Performing Arts Centre where she also teaches dance, volunteers for Lakeside Hospice and participates in St. Clair County’s Distinguished Young Women program.

About DYW:  “It’s really a great program.  It gets you thinking and encourages you to be your best self.  I’m excited about everything it has to offer, and I’ve already grown as a person through the program.  We recently had the annual celebrity dinner, and it raised $6,500 for scholarships, and I’m excited about other fun things that are going to come.”  Judge Mike Bolin served as Savannah’s celebrity waiter.  “He’s a sweetheart.”

The greatest challenge facing young people today:  “Staying in touch with morals.  In a world full of technology, it’s become harder to do, but that’s definitely something that’s saddening to look at.  I definitely see potential for the situation to improve, and I think that’s where young people need to step up and be good examples for others.”

The best advice she ever received:  “Do everything you can because you’re not promised tomorrow.  My grandmother told me that.  I’m always busy, but I think I’ll have the best memories to look back on.”

About staying busy:  “It can be hard to balance everything between scholastics, extracurricular activities and home life.  It takes a really prepared person to be able to do it.  Like, I might be in cheerleading or dance until 8 o’clock at night and have a chemistry test the next morning.  You have to be really committed to be able to do it.  You can’t do it halfheartedly.”

Her favorite subject:  Math.  “It’s not the easiest, but it definitely keeps me intrigued.  My hardest subject is chemistry.”

Her GPA:  4.6.  She’s enrolled in all honors classes at Victory.

How she describes herself:  “Definitely very outspoken.  I love to get in front of people and talk to them.  Also, I’m very loud, definitely.  I love the outdoors.  I’m a bit of a cowgirl, so one minute I can be in my boots and the next I’m in a dress and heels.  I’m usually always dressed up at school, but nobody’s too good for a t-shirt Friday.”