VIDALIA — When Vidalia Junior High School student Deondrais Boxley sets a goal, he intends to achieve it.

“Most students his age set goals that are very big and broad, such as, ‘I want to be a basketball player,’” said VJHS science teacher Stacy Allen. “Deondrais sets big goals, but he also sets incremental goals on the school-level that he can reach now.”

When Boxley learned about the Concordia Parish School District’s Student of the Year awards, he intended to accomplish it when he became an eighth-grader.

Boxley was all smiles in February when the announcement came from interim superintendent Loretta Blankenstein.

“It was an honor,” Boxley said. “I was able to not only support my school, but also represent the district.”

While competing on the regional level, Boxley wrote an essay on Martin Luther King Jr., a person he had portrayed when he was able to read King’s famous “I have a dream” speech to classmates at VJHS.

“It was an honor to give his famous speech in front of the whole school,” he said. “He was such a symbol of honor and respect.”

Boxley said his career goal is to become an oncologist. He said it was tough for him when the people around him, including his great uncle and two of his aunts, died from cancer over a period of approximately two years.

“I want to prevent cancer, so that other families won’t have to go through that,”

With his goal being to become a doctor, naturally science is Boxley’s favorite subject.

“Mrs. Stacy Allen had a big impact on getting me into science,” he said. “You could really tell that she cared about the subject she was teaching.

“Mrs. Allen always knew just what to say.”

Allen said she was honored that a student such as Boxley thought so highly of her.

“Even though he is in the eighth grade now, we still talk when we see each other — it’s not that big of a school,” she said.

When he was a sixth-grader, Boxley was a tutor to Allen’s science students, and she said he is still helping out his fellow students today.

“He’s big on helping other students and improving the school as a whole,” she said. “He would also help us teachers with anything we needed with the technology.

Allen added with a laugh, “I wish we had 100 of him.”

Boxley said he enjoys being a tutor. He is now tutoring math for all three grades at the junior high.

“It actually helps me, too, bringing back things that I learned,” he said. “But I like to help the other students learn a little more.”

Boxley is also the president of both the student council and BETA, and he participates on the yearbook staff and is a member of the science club. He also keeps the scorebook for the basketball team and is the manager of the football team.

“I have a lot of responsibility,” he said. “It’s not too hard right now. I do my homework, but I don’t study.

“So far it’s coming naturally,” Boxley said with a laugh. “But I’m told that might change in high school.”

His goals do not stop at junior high, as the eighth grader has already begun to stake his claims for high school.

“I am just going to prepare to be the class of 2020 valedictorian,” Boxley said. “It’s important that I maintain my grades so that I can get it.”

The oldest of four children, it’s also important to him to set a good example for his siblings.

“I don’t want them going in the wrong direction,” Boxley said. “I want to see them succeed in the future.”