Hello, Patch readers. My name is Kevin Branco. I am an 18-year old senior at West Morris Central High School. Mr. Koestenblatt has graciously given me the opportunity to blog for the Patch as a voice representing WMC, and I now seek to take advantage of this fortuitous situation. But first, let me tell you a bit about myself.

I have various interests, but my two strongest are in musical theater and journalism. Over the past three years, I have participated in four different productions at the high school (three musicals and one play) over the past three years. I will be performing as Noah in the third musical, Children of Eden, in March. As for journalism, I am the Managing Editor of the WMC Paw, the school newspaper. Besides assisting with editing and layout, I manage the Paw’s social media accounts and control the club email. Both activities manage to successfully alleviate the academic stress that I endure on a daily basis.

This does not imply that I fear the stress though; rather, I have conditioned myself to enjoy it. I take all IB/AP classes, with the exception of Journalism. I am a member of both the National Honor Society and Spanish Honor Society. I have heard back from multiple colleges, but I have not decided where I want to attend yet. I have been accepted to, and am considering Rutgers, Ohio State, the University of Maryland, and the University of Wisconsin among others. I plan to major in Journalism, and would love to pursue a career in Sports Journalism once I obtain my degree.

Outside of school, I participate in Peer Ministry at my church (St. Mark’s), play piano, and of course, enjoy hanging out with friends. I also closely follow professional sports. I root mostly for the local teams, with the exception of the NFL (Colts fan).

I cannot wait to begin blogging regularly. I have no concrete focus for my blog. I would prefer to cover a wide gamut of topics. In my first entry (next week), I plan to discuss the influence of spirituality upon my life.

Don’t let that scare you though; I have no desire to proselytize. I would also venture a wild guess that articles on the internet from teenagers exert minimal influence upon readers’ religious beliefs and practices.