NATCHEZ — Helping people motivates 17-year-old Dylan White to excel.

One of White’s favorite memories is doing mission work at a senior center in Milwaukee when he was a freshman at Cathedral High School.

“We cleaned up the garden and painted walls for them,” he said. “This was the first year I went on the Catholic Heart Week mission trip and I had a lot of fun.

“Just knowing that you are helping other people out and having fun at the same time — that is big.”

White has participated in the mission workweek every year since then and hopes to continue this year in Denver. To raise funds, St. Mary’s Catholic Youth Organization sold jambalaya lunches Wednesday.

“He chooses to go on these trips over going to the beach with his friends,” his mother Emily White said. “He does not view it as a job — he really enjoys it.”

White, who has been the president of the CYO for two years, volunteered to sell tickets, bring a cake, plate and transport lunches.

St. Mary’s Youth Director Amanda Hudson said White is a very mature youth president and that is why his peers voted him into the position.

“He is really responsible,” she said. “If he says he will do something he will follow through.

“I wish we had more like him.”

Taking responsibility for projects and being a role model for others was something he had done for a while, White’s father, Reagan White said.

“In elementary and junior high, all of the kids looked up to him,” Reagan White said. “It’s the way he lives his life, he tries to succeed in everything he does.”

Dylan White is a quarterback for the Cathedral football team, and also pitches and plays shortstop for the Green Wave. He said he mainly plays sports for the camaraderie.

“I like just being around all of my friends,” he said. “You make closer bonds through teamwork.”

Baseball is his favorite sport, and has been for a long time, Emily White said.

“My first homerun (was my favorite baseball memory,” Dylan White said. “I hit a grand slam my junior year of high school and I was so excited.”

White will major in sports administration at LSU this fall. He hopes to become an athletic director one day.

White received an academic scholarship that will pay $36,644 over four years.

A Cathedral honor roll student, White realized early on having good grades in school was important.

“School is where the future of your life is going to come from,” White said.

Reagan White said his proudest moment was when White received the top spot for the Miss-Lou’s chapter of the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame scholarship, which awarded $2,250.

The reason why Reagan White was so proud was not the money, though, it was how he got it. The Miss-Lou’s schools each name a nominee for being star athletes, but also for showing strong leadership and academics during high school.

“It just shows the fact that he has been well-rounded in everything he has done,” Reagan White said. “I’m proud of what he has achieved in sports, the classroom, his social life, everything.”

At school, Dylan White is vice president of his class and the student council. He is also in the National Honor Society.

White said he’d remember high school fondly, “Just knowing he did all he could to help the school.”