Photo courtesy of Titus Smith.
Homewood High School Senior Titus Smith, with his parents Wade and Audrey, and sister Alice
Homewood High School Senior Titus Smith, with his parents Wade and Audrey, and sister Alice.
Q: Please tell our readers about yourself.
A: I’m an 18-year-old senior at Homewood High School. I’m in AP classes from 7:05 to 3:10 every day. I’ll have 10 AP exams this May, making 17 total AP exams over my high school career. I love working on cars; I’m currently replacing the engine of my grandfather’s old 1988 BMW convertible with my dad and a rag-tag group of friends. I do free tutoring for AP Physics 1 and AP Biology.
Q: What do you like most about attending Homewood High School?
A: My favorite thing about Homewood is the quality of teachers; I have a 4.0 unweighted GPA and already have 25 credit hours from AP exams in past years, but that’s just as much a result of the superlative quality of my teachers as it is a result of my own studying.
Q: What extracurricular activities do you participate in?
A: I’m a varsity athlete — shotput thrower — for Homewood’s track and field team. Last summer I interned at a company called ProcessBarron in Pelham, where I learned a lot about CNC machining and the general process of manufacturing as I created programs to automate part production.
Q: Who is your role model and why?
A: My role model is my dad. He has an outstanding work ethic, he’s extremely loving to our family and he has a huge wealth of knowledge on a wide variety of topics that I can always draw from.
Q: Where do you plan to attend college and what do you plan to major in? What attracted you to this field?
A: I’ll most likely end up studying mechanical engineering at Alabama, UAH, Purdue or Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. I’d love to attend any of these; the main factor remaining to weigh is how much money I am offered by each. Both of my parents are mechanical engineers, so we’ve always joked that it’s in my blood. But more influentially, seeing feats of engineering — whether it be a great race car or a rocket or a bridge or a fighter jet — has always inspired a strong sense of awe and purpose in me. I don’t know exactly what I want to work on professionally, so I am leaning toward the versatility of mechanical engineering.
Q: What advice would you give incoming freshmen at Homewood High School?
A: Find a group of good, smart, motivated people and stick around them. It’s hard to understate the impact that your circle has on you, especially when you’re with the same people five days a week, eight hours a day.
