PONTIAC – The question was: what makes Carly Joseph tick?
It came near the end of an interview with this 17-year-old alumna — as of a couple of weeks ago — of Pontiac Notre Dame Prep, going over her high school career, her extracurricular activities, her outside school interests.
She expressed herself easily, yet a bit cautiously, but conveyed the notion that her thoughts were in order and that she knew exactly what she wanted to share.
It was surprising, then, that Carly paused a moment before answering: “I don’t know,” adding: “I try not to plan ahead too much.”
One senses, however, that Carly knows what direction she wants her life to take. Betty Wroubel, the Fighting Irish athletic director and her softball coach (Carly is a pitcher), says that “kids look up to her. She has a clear brain, is analytic and very well organized.”
It’s not difficult finding Carly. She’s usually in front, in a leadership position. She carried a 4.3 grade point average, belonged to the National Honor Society, was president of the Spanish National Honor Society and president of the Varsity Club.
She was selected during her junior year for a two-year term by the Michigan High School Athletic Association to its Student Advisory Council. The 16-member council, which meets six times a year in Lansing and conducts leadership retreats, provides the MHSAA governing board with “what actually is going on in schools from the students’ perspective,” Carly said.
Sportsmanship was a primary concern for the council the past two years. “The Battle of the Fans was our idea,” Carly said. “We wanted to make athletics a fun and positive educational experience.” A series of sportsmanship summits was conducted across the state. Carly chaired one discussion for more than a hundred students.
“I found this to be a real confidence builder,” Carly said. She brought back the idea to Notre Dame Prep to promote increased attendance at sporting events through Twitter and formation of the Irish Guard, students whose job was to keep the cheers and interest going in the stands.
As a member of the Irish cross country team, Carly discovered a “love” for running — “it’s a mental and physical challenge,” she said. After Carly ran a pair of half-marathons the last two years, she put herself through a rigorous 40-50-mile-a-week training routine before and after school in preparation for the full 26.2-mile race Memorial Day weekend in Traverse City.
“I get very passionate about competing. I like to get better, to work harder,” she said.
Carly is just as passionate, if not more so, about snowboarding. “It’s something I took up to do” while waiting for a banged up knee to heal a few years back. “I love snow,” she said.
On July 26, she’ll make a return visit to Bariloche, Argentina, in the foothills of the Andes, for 22 days at the nearby Patagonia backcountry summer snowboarding camp. “I’m going by myself,” she says about the full day’s flight (via Detroit to Miami to Buenos Aires) to Bariloche.
The Under-18 camp is staffed by professional coaches and guides who, according to promotional materials, “take your skills to a new level while your friends are sweating back home.” There have been snowstorms that have dumped up to 10 feet in a few days.
“It’s fun,” Carly said, anticipating renewing friendships “and having a chance to practice my Spanish.”
Three days upon her return home, Carly will head to Michigan Technological University in Marquette to begin studies toward a biomedical degree.
Carly mentioned she participated in kairos, a specially designed retreat for high school students to help them develop their relationship with God. “It was a deeply spiritual experience,” she said.
