Editor's note: This is the third in a series of eight articles on the finalists for the Roy S. Bates Foundation Player of the Year award. Profiled today is Stephanie Smith of Wooster High School. Each of the finalists receives a one-time, $2,500 Roy S. Bates Scholarship, a component of the Wayne County Community Foundation.
WOOSTER - Stephanie Smith knows what she wants her day-to-day life to look like in the future: less paperwork and more people-work.
Smith, a senior at Wooster High, is a 2019 winner of a Roy S. Bates Scholarship. All eight Bates Scholarship recipients receive a one-time $2,500 scholarship to use at college.
And while she's undecided on what she'll major in when she attends Baldwin Wallace University, she has it narrowed down.
Smith, the daughter of David and Carol Smith of Smithville, plans to choose a major in a health or medicine field, as she's interested in a career in speech pathology or audiology, a path that most importantly for her will focus on working with people.
"I just want to help people, like after they've been through a traumatic experience, recover from that," said Smith. "I just want them to overcome one of their issues or problems and just help them, and I like working with different kinds of people.
"I don't want to be sitting at a desk for the rest of my life. I want to be up and around, talking, meeting new people."
After four years on the Wooster High varsity basketball team, Smith, a 2019 Division I All-Ohio special mention pick, will continue her hoops career collegiately for the Yellow Jackets.
Smith, who ranks 24th in her class of 266 with a 3.86 GPA, also played varsity volleyball her freshman year at WHS and competed on the track and field team her junior year and this spring.
The Generals' head girls track coach, Chris Mascotti, is also her favorite teacher.
"She'll stay after class and help explain different problems if you're struggling in the classroom and she's just always there for you," said Smith of the math teacher. "She's such a great person. I can't even explain it, she's so kind and cares about you and she cares about you as a person and an athlete."
Those all-around attributes apply to Smith, a National Honor Society and distinguished honor roll member who said she's been interested in the applying to the Bates scholarship for a while now.
"It means a lot to me coming in because I've seen the scholarship in the paper for many, many years," said Smith. "I've always wanted to apply for it, so being named, winning the scholarship, means a lot to me because I've always wanted it throughout these years."
Smith and the other seven finalists and their parents will be guests at a dinner on April 22 at Jake's Steakhouse east of Wooster, with D+S Distribution and Magnum Metals joining Jake's as sponsors of the dinner.