State-Journal.com - Student elected to Beta Club top spot

Photo By State Journal/Hilly SchifferWood Smith, 17, was elected national Beta Club vice president.

Seventeen-year-old Wood Smith had two cheerleaders in the audience when he was elected national Beta Club vice president in Orlando, Fla., last weekend - his mother, Maribeth, and Franklin County High School teacher Susie Smith.

Some of his 36 competitors had hundreds of supporters clad in campaign T-shirts at the election.

Of the 3,200 in attendance, 117 were from Kentucky - and just 35 of them were eligible to vote.

But Smith, who will be a senior at FCHS in the fall, still came out on top. He is only the third Kentuckian to be elected to national Beta office in the convention’s 29-year history, and the second from FCHS.

“It feels great, and it’s an honor to be able to say that,” he said. “I’m enjoying every minute of it, and I enjoyed every minute of the national convention.”

Susie Smith, a special education teacher at FCHS and sponsor of the school’s Beta Club, says his congeniality helped him beat the odds.

“He has such an outgoing personality, and that’s what I saw the entire convention, both on and off stage,” she said.

“His odds were really low to begin with, and he just blew everyone else out of the water.”

To win the national office, Smith had to first conquer a runoff election at his own school. From there, he competed for state office as a vice presidential candidate.

State officers are eligible to run for the same role at the national level, though it isn’t mandatory. At the national convention, they meet face to face with voters, give speeches, perform a skit and answer a question before an audience of thousands.

Smith will hold the office for one year, until a new vice president is elected at the 2010 national convention in Louisville. His primary responsibility will be to plan that convention, alongside the newly-elected president and secretary.

He says the win will also give him a chance to learn leadership skills by attending the Broyhill Leadership Conference, offered by the national organization.

He plans to travel to state conventions on the weekends, where he will speak to members. Conventions in Louisiana and Texas are high on his list.

To be a Beta Club member, students must maintain a 3.4 GPA. The club at FCHS has 128 members.

Western Hills High School and Frankfort High School also have chapters.

“It’s a service-oriented organization for youth that promotes mostly the ideals of high academic standards, high moral character, honesty, integrity, service,” Susie Smith said.

The first Kentuckian to win was a Ballard Memorial High School student in 1987. In 2005, FCHS student Ryan Wright was elected as national vice president.

Smith says the two are friends, and he watched a video of Wright’s winning speech to prepare.

“It’s a great honor, it feels great,” he said. “I love being able to say I hold the same national office he did.”

Susie Smith says she feels honored to have two FCHS students win in the last four years.

“I feel like, it’s really not my accomplishment, but what I can say is that I’ve helped build our local club up, and helped get the opportunity for the students to run for office,” she said.

Since returning home to Frankfort, Smith says he is keeping in touch with the friends he made last week via text message and Facebook. He has also invited his fellow national officers to Kentucky’s Beta Club convention.

“It’s great coming out as vice president, but even if I hadn’t, it would have been a great experience anyway,” he said, emphasizing that he attended the convention to make friends, not just to win the office.

“It was one of the most fun weeks I’ve ever had in my life.”

Smith said he could pursue a career in public speaking, but he is also considering psychology or therapy. His interest lies in communication, though he admits he’s “way up in the air” about what to study at college next year. He hopes to attend Centre College in Danville.

“I get just as nervous as anybody else - public speaking is an intimidating thing,” he said.

“But when I get up there and it flows, I really enjoy it. I love it, and I’m strongly thinking about maybe going on with this.”

Smith also serves as vice president of Key Club, co-captain of the wrestling team and was president of the junior class last year. He is also a Fly Guy and member of the band, and will become senior class president next fall.

He is the son of Maribeth and Claude Smith of Frankfort.

Smith gives credit to his parents and the teachers who helped him prepare - Tom Marshall, Karen Nix, Kerry Casey, and of course, Susie Smith.

“She has no idea how much she’s done for this Beta Club, and how much she’s done for me,” he said. “I wouldn’t have had this opportunity in the first place.”