Norman North's Katie Faires: Academic Student of the Month – presented by Republic Bank & Trust

Written by John Tranchina

Katie Faires isn’t 100 percent sure yet if she’s going to continue to play the French horn in the school band when she attends college at Oklahoma Baptist University next year, because she knows she wants to focus on her academics more.

The Norman North senior has managed to play three different instruments and still get good grades, though, so she’s still not sure she’s ready to give up something she enjoys so much.

“I haven’t decided if I’m going to continue with band or not,” Faires said. “It’s going to be difficult to not, but I know that since I want to be a doctor, maybe I should start focus on that more than the music side.”

She loves playing the French horn, mainly because of how it sounds.

“I love the sound of it, it’s very unique and it’s very difficult to play,” said Faires, who has been playing for seven years. “I think, especially with the composer John Williams, it has really amazing horn parts to it and I just love how it sounds. I think it’s really awesome. During marching season, I play the mellophone, it’s like the French horn. I can play trumpet and I can also play piano – I played piano for a couple of years when I was younger.”

With a 3.89 GPA and an approach that puts academics first, Faires has so far successfully navigated the challenges of getting her schoolwork done.

“I think for me, it’s very important, because I want to be a doctor, so getting my GPA up really high and taking very rigorous classes is something requires my full attention,” Faires said. “I think being a good student is something that is very important, even if you don’t want to pursue a doctorate degree or anything like that, because the more passion you put into it, the more you’re going to get out of it.”