Jamil Tharp is an extremely involved junior at George Ranch. Walking down the hall with him is a slow, laborious process, as he stops to talk to everyone he knows-which is pretty much every student at George Ranch. If you don’t know who Jamil is, you are in the minority. I got the chance to sit down and talk to him about his many extracurricular activities.

The Wrangler: So what are you involved in at school?

Tharp: I’m involved in Broadcast, as you know, and then, Band, then, Mascot, and then, I’m a class officer.

The Wrangler: How did you get into those different activities?

Tharp: First, I started off with band, because I started in middle school and progressed on throughout high school. And I found that marching band was really fun. It’s a lot of work, but it’s very interesting to me, and I like it. Then, I started off with Broadcast when I saw the first Broadcast show in advisory when I was a freshman. I said, “That was really cool,” and I wanted to be up on the screen. And I had no experience in Broadcast, so I didn’t anything that was going on [so I joined]. [As for] Mascot, people just said I’m like really goofy and stuff, so I did that. It’s really fun, but you can break a real sweat in that [Longhorn Suit]. You get real tired. And then [for] class officers, I was the student council president in middle school, so I decided to keep up with my leadership.

The Wrangler: How do you balance those activities with your schoolwork?

Tharp: I don’t know how I balance them to be honest. Well, [for] band [I] just show up to practice. You do band when it’s time for band. [For example,] on Mondays, we have a three hour practice. So for that three hours, I’m devoted to band, and nothing else. Broadcast is just all over the place. I have a schedule. Like my phone is what keeps me on track and tells me what to do and when to do it.

The Wrangler: What are some goals you have for all your different activities this year?

Tharp: Well, for band, I just wanted to do it to be able to say that I accomplished band throughout high school, because it’s very interesting to me and I’m getting a learning experience from it.  Now with Broadcast, I want to be able to go to college and do the real industry of Broadcast, being on live television and broadcasting to the whole campus and getting that experience. Class officers, just keeping [up] my leadership, leading the school, and helping people out. Just little goals that a leader would want to [accomplish]. And then for Mascot, I’m just doing it to have fun. I probably won’t even do it next year.

The Wrangler: Did you win an award for Mascot over the summer?

Tharp: Yes, I got All-American Mascot, and then Best Leadership Mascot. I was shocked when I got leadership, because, it was me and this other girl mascot from a different school, and we took the lead of the whole thing, like getting together our skits and stuff, and so I won that award. Then I got All-American, which is really huge in the cheer industry. Making All-American, you get to go to the Thanksgiving Parade. You get to go to the Christmas Parade. You get to go to the Macy’s Parade. So I get to do those, which I probably won’t end up doing, because I don’t want to be gone on both Christmas and Thanksgiving.

The Wrangler: How do you think all of your activities are going to help you in college and after college?

Tharp: With me being in all these programs, it helps me get a better chance of getting a scholarship if I don’t get it in academics. So, I try to keep up my average for academics to see if I can get a scholarship, but also I try to make sure I do excellent in my extracurriculars so I know I can for sure get a scholarship for them because of all of the hard work and dedication I put into them.