by Taylor Burns

Most seniors are thinking about filling out scholarships and making sure their grades are in a good place to graduate. Senior Joe Kacmarynski is one of those many seniors, plus more.

Joe is involved in many things around the PCM School District. He is involved in varsity cheerleading for both football and basketball, National Honor Society, DMACC classes, an Advanced Placement (AP) class and two jobs. 

Joe says he manages with good time-management skills and never procrastinating.

In the morning, Joe goes to DMACC for his Culinary Arts class. He also has another DMACC online class, which is Personal Finance where he learns about family financial planning including financial statements, budgeting, taxes, risk management and retirement. Joe does have two extra study halls for his online and AP classes though, which he says helps his time-management. He knows those study halls are just for those classes, so he knows he should just work on them then. Joe’s AP class is Government.

He also has another study hall every other day on his off days of P.E.

“I usually base my time-management on my online classes. If I have a paper due at midnight, I’ll do that first, then my other classes next,” he said.

Joe also has two part-time jobs. He is the Assistant Manager at Subway in Monroe and a server at Montana Mike’s in Newton. He has worked at Subway for about 13 months and Montana Mike’s since June.

You can catch Joe at Subway on Saturdays, Sundays and Wednesdays and at Montana Mike’s on Thursdays and Saturday and Sunday nights.

Joe has cheer practice on Monday and Tuesday nights for Friday night football games from 5:30-8:30 p.m.

“I barely get any [downtime],” he said. “Maybe just from after school till cheer at 5:30 or whenever I work that day.”

Now, when he does get downtime, Joe says he likes to do homework.

“I like to be involved because I feel like I’ve learned better time-management skills this year than I have in the past,” Joe said. “I know I have to get things done, otherwise it just won’t.”

Joe would like to go to Central College or Kirkwood for two years and transfer to the University of Northern Iowa. If he decides to major in teaching though, he would like to go through DMACC and be part of their Culinary Arts program. He also says he would like to get a minor in coaching, so he can come back to coach cheer.