Willms on fast track to success.

Dianna Willms of Arlington, a senior at Minuteman Career & Technical High School in Lexington, gets inducted in the school's chapter of the National Honor Society. With her are her parents, Joy and Mark. Photo by Bill Heisler.

It’s a pretty sure bet that Dianna Willms’ calendar gets a real workout every single day.  This poised, outgoing teen from Arlington has a hectic slate of activities and responsibilities that might leave someone else breathless, yet she clearly thrives on the challenge of juggling numerous tasks and excels in various leadership capacities at Minuteman Career & Technical High School in Lexington, where she is a senior.

“I just love doing all the things I do,” declares Willms, 17.  “I love being involved, and Minuteman lets me get involved in everything.”

She has been president of the Class of 2010 since her sophomore year; is president of Minuteman’s chapter of a national organization for vocational students called SkillsUSA; participates in the drama club, is the school’s softball team’s starting pitcher and captain of the cross country team; serves as a student ambassador for Minuteman; and belongs to the National Honor Society.

On top of all that, Willms takes dance class, is part of a bowling league and a year-round softball league, and has a job at the Arlington ice skating rink.

During the week of October 12, Willms visited Ottoson Middle School in Arlington to describe her own success, as well as talk about the exciting academic, technical and extra-curricular opportunities awaiting the students if they apply and are accepted at Minuteman.

She recently spoke to middle school students in Lincoln, another town in the Minuteman school district.  The reception she got from the young audience was so enthusiastic, Willms says, that one comment she heard was “I’m going to apply right away!”

Willms’ own introduction to Minuteman came from her older sister, who graduated from the school in 2006.  “She absolutely loved everything at Minuteman,” Willms remarked, and is now a senior at Bridgewater State College studying business.  Her younger sister is a Minuteman freshman who has an affinity for Culinary Arts.

A while back, Willms says she also was headed for the Culinary Arts program at Minuteman.  Eventually, though, she chose Telecommunications instead, and at a teacher’s suggestion, finally opted for Pre-Engineering.

Because she has a knack for “talking to people and getting the word out,” Willms sees herself as a technical marketer in the future, collaborating closely with engineers.  For her senior project, Willms is already getting a taste of that type of work by being the marketing person for two teams of her classmates in Pre-Engineering.  Willms happens to be the only girl in the program, but that doesn’t faze her a bit.

If any more evidence of her outstanding ability was needed, it came in the form of a fourth-place finish at the rigorous national level of the SkillsUSA competition in the Science and Engineering category in June 2009.

Willms is hoping that all these impressive credentials will propel her into a prestigious college after she graduates from Minuteman in June.  Right now, she is considering a few including Worcester Polytechnic Institute, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and Western New England College.  “I’m really ready to take that next step,” she says.

Unlike students who good-naturedly grouse a little about this or that teacher, Willms exclaims that she “loves every single one” of her Minuteman instructors, especially Greg Donovan, the school’s drama club adviser.  “All the drama kids love him,” she gushes.

For her, being at Minuteman has had myriad benefits.  Willms makes an analogy to driver education to communicate the tremendous value of the hands-on training available there in every technical program.

In other high schools, she says, “you just read the manual about driving a vehicle.  At Minuteman, you drive the car.”