Teen flourishes with hectic schedule

There aren’t enough hours in Jessie Mazur’s day.

The Whitefish High School junior is on the go from morning until night — and sometimes longer.

She goes to school.

She has meetings at lunch.

After school, she practices for cheerleading and speech and debate.

After dinner, she has meetings for Venture Crew, a co-ed offshoot of Boy Scouts of America, or other activities.

At some point, she has to do her homework.

And maybe, if she’s lucky, she’ll squeeze in a little shut-eye.

“It’s really tricky. I’ve pulled more than a few all-nighters to get my homework done,” said Mazur, 16. “It’s a tricky balance, and it’s a constant war to prioritize, but I think I’m making it work.”

Not only is she making it work, Mazur is flourishing in her hectic schedule.

She is a founding member of the school’s Young Democrats club and secretary of the junior class. She is co-captain of the varsity cheer squad and the reigning Class A state champion in Original Oratory.

And she recently was named a delegate to the Scout Association of Japan/Boy Scouts of America Exchange Program. Mazur is one of 32 American scouts chosen to participate. (Daniel Rivera of Whitefish also is heading to Japan).

She will spend a week in February in Japan, attending a youth forum, touring historic sites and staying with a host family in Tokyo.

It’s a great opportunity for a girl who had been dying to join Venture Crew since she was 10 years old.

Mazur started out in Girl Scouts. From 2001 to 2007, she hocked Thin Mints and worked for merit badges. She was the Flathead Valley’s top cookie seller in 2005 and 2006 and earned her Bronze Award in addition to her 30 merit badges.

But Mazur wanted something more from her scouting experience, especially as she got older.

“It got to be that there was such an age difference — five or six years apart from the youngest girls to the oldest,” she said. “And there were so many regulations.”

Mazur was “looking for more adventure,” and Venture Crew seemed a perfect fit. The group, which is open to students ages 14 to 20, offers “a lot of high-skills outdoor things,” she said.  “It’s a little more difficult than Boy Scouts.”

Mazur helped found Venturing Crew 2917 in 2007. Since then, she and the crew have canoed the Kootenai River from Troy to Bonner’s Ferry, Idaho, climbed Elk Calf Mountain above Marias Pass in the winter and summited Mount Rainier in Washington.

The group also takes on community service projects, including repainting memorial crosses along highways and helping with Whitefish events such as the Winter Carnival and Clean the Fish.

These things crowd Mazur’s already congested schedule, but she wouldn’t have it any other way. Giving up even one activity isn’t an option.

“I occasionally do something for a resume filler, but not really,” Mazur said. “I pretty much just love everything I do.”

While she doesn’t prefer one of her many activities over another, Mazur has had to learn to prioritize them.

“Cheerleading is almost always my first priority. It’s a team. I have to be dedicated,” she said.

But she’ll give as much time as she can to the other activities.

“I would do more if I had time. I really like to be involved,” she said.

Her passion is politics, Mazur added, and if she could, she would devote more time to Young Democrats and similar activities.

“I get so involved in that. I wish I had way more time to dedicate to that,” she said. “I want to do all that I can, but I have to pick and choose.”

Her love for politics may one day become her vocation. Mazur plans to study political science, possibly at Georgetown University, and find a career in Washington, D.C. — “maybe be a senator, or I wouldn’t mind being president.”

While Mazur sometimes relies on caffeine to get her through the busy days and nights, she depends more on the people around her and her own passion for her activities. Those are the keys to maintaining peace of mind in her frenetic life.

“I have a lot of support, and I really love everything I’m doing, which is why I can get through it all,” she said.

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or by e-mail at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com