When sophomore Zach St. Clair was 2 years old, he watched fighter planes take off at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage, where his dad was stationed and where he was born.

St. Clair then lived in Kodiak, an island off the south coast of Alaska, for ten years. The town was home to about 6000 people, mostly Filipinos, Russians and native Alaskans. Here, St. Clair did everything from playing baseball, football and soccer to attending kaleidoscope and circus camps.

“Circus camp was one of the best,” he said. “I personally am really good at balancing things, like stilts and globes. I could walk on bowling balls and just go around.”

His parents divorced when he was in fifth grade, so he moved with his mom and sister to Iola, Kan. the following summer.

“It’s not like the uber small town where there are ten people, and everyone’s related,” he said. “But everyone in the community knows you, even if you don’t know them — [especially] if you’re big and you do important things.”

When his mom remarried, they moved here to be closer to his stepdad’s work as a pilot in St. Louis. St. Clair transitioned from a high school of 300 people to one of 1000.

“This is nice, and you guys have lots of stuff here, but at the same time there’s lots of people and it’s going to be harder to do things,” he said. “I could do StuCo in Iola because everyone knew me, but here it’s going to take a long time for even half the school to know who I am.”

Now, St. Clair lives in Kansas with his mom while at school and with his dad the rest of the time.

“Going there in the summer I can just kind of chill — it’s a good spot to chill, Alaska,” he said. “I like Kansas a lot because there are a lot more opportunities to do things and to get involved than in Kodiak. I think I like being here in the school year.”

More on Zach St. Clair

• Favorite Food: corned beef
• Favorite Restaurant: “I just discovered what Penn Station was and I’ve been there three times since Friday.”
• Favorite Comedy: Monty Python and the Holy Grail
• Favorite Animal: “If I could choose an animal to have I would probably choose something that’s smart, like a toucan.”
• Favorite Activities: soccer, band and jazz band, longboarding:  “[I’ve had] asphalt in my arm since third grade. I was skateboarding and I tripped and wiped out. I probably have superpowers and I just haven’t realized it.”