Will Stocker: A well rounded hard worker
BY MICHAELA CATOE, Junior
Will Stocker Video Feature
BLYTHEWOOD--William Stocker, a senior at Blythewood High School, has learned to juggle all of his responsibilities because of his involvement in numerous school activities throughout his years in high school. From acting as Ryan in this year’s play “High School Musical” to singing in an advanced level choir, William, more commonly known as Will, lets his love for the Fine Arts program shine through all that he is involved in. 
His dedication to his craft as well his willingness to reach out to others has helped him build numerous relationships with students and teachers.
While it seems like he has been singing and acting all of this life, he only started acting when he came to high school.
“For singing, it was when I was little. Acting... I wasn’t really much of an actor. I did Drama 1 my freshman year because I thought it would help me get into acting. It really didn’t but my first time acting was in ‘You’re a good man, Charlie Brown’ my sophomore year,” Stocker said.
Will did not just have any role in “You’re a good man, Charlie Brown”. He played the role of Schroeder, who loved playing the piano. In "High School Musical," he will be playing the role of Ryan, who again is a lead character.
"It’s not really hard, in a way. You do have a lot of stuff to carry on your back, but other than that, if you do what you're told and you know what you're doing, it's not that hard. It’s actually pretty fun," Stocker said.
It can be hard juggling curricular and extracurricular activities. However, Will somehow manages to do it all. He has a job at Bi-Lo, is in the acaBengals which is an a Capella group that meets after school, is in the BHS Concert Choir, and has around the clock rehearsals.
"I don't know how I do it, but I just do. I don't think this is the right word, but it's more of an independent type of thing. I don't dedicate the right amount of time to everything because I'm not going to lie, I do kind of slack on some of the stuff. It's just that I know how to clean up, and I know how to carry myself." Stocker said.
Will thinks he does a good job of knowing when it is time to be serious and get his work done. His best friend, senior Erykah Alford, who is in the acaBengals, the BHS Concert Choir, and the play with him, has not noticed him struggling.
"For the most part, he's pretty good. I don't ever see him say he's struggling. Other than college applications now, but before that, it was pretty good," Alford said.
Ms. Kristin Claiborne, the Blythewood High School Choir Director, has taught Will since he was a freshman. Over the course of the years, she has seen a complete change in a number of his qualities, but specifically his musical skills. Will now helps his class occasionally with conducting song pieces and leads warm ups every morning.
"Will Stocker has grown in a multitude of ways. From just maturing, musically, people to people relations. Musically, Will couldn't do anything when he got in choir. He had the natural ability to sing.”
“In terms of understanding the vocal pedagogy behind singing, that's totally different now. He can actually conduct, and conduct pretty accurately for someone who has never had conducting lessons other than me saying "Hey Will, do it this way.". He understands how chords work a little bit more.”
“He's grown in ways that I wasn't really expecting... ways that I didn't realize he was soaking up from me that I was teaching. I would see him do something in warm ups that he leads every morning and I knew it wasn't something that I'd specifically told him.”
“It was something he'd heard me say to somebody else or to the group as a whole and he figured it out on his own, which was really interesting," Claiborne said.
While he emits true leadership skills, being in these programs has truly allowed him to make great friendships.
"We are very, very, very, very, very, very close that is my best friend. I don't know, it's just, we have so much in common. Like, funniness, not funniness, put it together, there it go right there. Hand in Hand. I don't know we're just very similar," Alford said.
Even Claiborne has noticed his change in friend groups because he has grown to reach out with so many people.
"With people, Will has just expanded his friend group. In choir now, if you just look specifically at first period, Will used to hang out with the same three people. But now, Will will run to this group, he'll fall out of this group, and bounce on over to this group and every group embraces him the same way.”
“That says a lot about the relationships that he has worked to build with different types of people. He's not just stuck with one group all the time. He's kinda branched out and has friends in multiple areas so that says a lot." Claiborne said.
Will loves his friends, and considers most of them to be more like family.
“I’ve made a lot of friendships. The ones that I have that I really love the most I call my family because we’re just tight like glue. If anything happens, we’re right on each other. If anything bad happens we’re right there. If anything is going on we’re right there. It’s a lot of us... I’ve got so many names for them - Choir Kickback, Fam Bam, Sausage and Ham, “You want a big part”... makes no sense but yep, that’s a name,” Stocker said.
Will has truly become an example of how school can be more than boring. Surrounding himself with the right people and finding what he loved, Will has managed to make his High School Years memorable and to make friendships that will last him a lifetime.
