Teen of the Week: Parkersburg South senior aims to help kids with hearing disorders
PARKERSBURG — Alayna Goff, 17, plans to pursue a career in audiology. As an audiologist, she will diagnose and help treat those with hearing loss and balance disorders. She wants to specialize in helping youth with disabilities.
“The career I most likely see myself in is an audiologist, specializing in disabled and special needs children,” she said. “Audiology is something I have a great interest in, and serving children in some way is a necessity for me.”
Goff is still in the process of picking out the college she wants to go to. She is looking into both WVU and Marshall. She is interested in majoring in Communication Sciences and Disorders to align with her career path.
“It is something I have always had the heart for and can lead me to many different jobs in varying settings,” she said.
Goff is a Parkersburg South High School student with a 4.082 GPA. She has taken honors math and English since seventh grade. In her junior year, she was able to take college English, sociology and human anatomy. This year, she is taking college English and math.
“I take these classes because though it may be difficult sometimes, it better prepares me for college and has taught me very important study, organizational and time management skills,” she said.
Goff’s favorite classes were Human Anatomy and math.
“I really enjoyed my Human Anatomy class because I want to go into the medical field so it taught me a lot of valuable information that I will definitely use in the future, and math because I like problem solving,” she said.
Throughout high school, Goff has participated in several extracurricular activities, such as National Honor Society, girls track and soccer. She began playing soccer at the age of 3 and now plays as a fullback on the girl’s team at PSHS.
“I have gone back and forth between just about every sport in my life, but was especially drawn towards soccer because of the speed and aggressiveness it takes,” said Goff. “It is a sort of therapy to go out on the field and let it all out.”
Prior to COVID, Goff spent many hours volunteering with the Camden Clark Teen Volunteer Program.
“I really loved everything about it and learned so much being in a hospital setting,”
Since then, she has volunteered in a few different settings with NHS, like providing Christmas presents for less fortunate children or helping work a blood drive held at PSHS.
“Volunteering my time for others is something that I plan to continue to do for as long as I’m able. It is really something special to see the way it makes others feel when you simply give them the time of day,” said Goff. “Sometimes just having a two minute conversation with them means more then whatever service you are actually providing. It’s a great feeling to know you made someone smile, especially when it may be the only reason they get to that day.”
Goff said one of her proudest accomplishments was holding a bake sale to help send orphans in Romania to bible school. She raised over $500 in just one day, by only selling things she made with her grandmas, aunts and mom.
“It was so special to spend that time with my family and so rewarding to be able to help the kids,” Goff said.
When she isn’t waitressing at the Country Kitchen or working in the PSHS office as an assistant, she enjoys spending her time watching medical shows or movies she can find, and reading books about medical conditions to learn more about biology and the mysteries of the body.
She also enjoys camping, boating, snowboarding and spending time with her sisters, Addyson and Alivia, and her nephew, Asher.
James Dobbs can be reached at jdobbs@newsandsentinel.com