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Date: 5/11/2021
HUNTINGTON – The National Honor Society (NHS) recently announced that Parker Atkin, a high school senior at Gateway Regional and member of NHS, has been selected as a NHS Scholarship semifinalist. Atkin was one of 575 semifinalists chosen from nearly 10,000 applicants and will receive a $3,200 scholarship toward higher education. “I’m really proud of that actually. I was really happy to receive that news,” said Atkin about the scholarship. “Huge props to Mr. Duggan, the National Honor Society advisor, who encouraged us to submit an application.” In the 100 years since the NHS was founded in 1921, members have been making a difference in their schools and communities, and the NHS Scholarship is a way of recognizing the most exceptional of these student leaders, according to the NHS. Recipients are chosen based on their demonstrated work to support the four pillars of NHS: scholarship, service, leadership, and character. “Parker exemplifies the four pillars of NHS, while bringing her own creativity to every new challenge,” said Gateway Curriculum Coordinator Deanna LeBlanc. “Parker’s dedication to social justice and inclusion in our school and community have made a lasting impression on many staff and students at Gateway.” Atkin is currently taking an independent study as a senior, with a goal of creating a theme park attraction from market research straight through the prototype and pitching of the concept. Atkin has created storyboards, demo mechanisms, produced lengthy market analysis based on detailed research, and is currently preparing to pitch the project to a panel of adults at Gateway. Atkin said the project was to create an attraction for any Disney Park in the world. She chose Disneyland Paris, and created one called “Escape from Bald Mountain,” based on a sequence from the Disney film “Fantasia.” Atkin is interested in all forms of storytelling, from experiential, where the storyteller is able to take people into places, such as “Dungeons and Dragons,” to immersive and linear storytelling. She said “Escape from Bald Mountain” is a combination of immersive storytelling with a classical linear storyline. “The story that I tell is about a mythological creature, a hero who would learn that he could banish demons, and a dark group working against him,” Atkin said. The mythological creature is Chernobog, a demon in “Fantasia,” god of night in Slavic mythology and also featured in the Marvel Universe. In Atkin’s flume-style attraction, a dark group summons Chernobog, who in the end is defeated and good wins the day. A flume attraction involves a trip via a water-way. Atkin is also an accomplished pianist who made Districts and All-State on jazz piano this year and will be featured in an All-State ensemble recording that is being edited together virtually from individually recorded submissions. She said music is a huge part of “Escape from Bald Mountain,” and comes from “Fantasia” directly pulling from orchestral scores. A synchronized on-board audio track would be on every boat in the ride, and guests will experience a cinematic score that integrates music into the surroundings in an interactive way. “This is new to flume style attractions,” she said. “As far as I can tell, this would be the first ‘Fantasia’-based attraction. They use pieces or images from it, but they’ve never built a ‘Fantasia”-based ride,” Atkin said. Asked what drew her to this independent study, Atkin said since age six, she wanted to design rides for Disney. Coming into high school, she considered different careers, then came to a realization: “What I really want to do is what I wanted to do at age six,” she said. Atkin will be attending Bennington College in Vermont, where she will be designing her own major and studying a lot of elements of immersive experience. She is currently dual enrolled in Holyoke Community College, where she is working on basic drawing for storyboards. “I’m working on being a better artist,” she said. “Gateway is great. I know that in a larger school I would not have had this opportunity, which came down to a personal relationship with the curriculum director. Because we’re at such a small school, we were able to sit down and work together. That wouldn’t have happened at a larger school. I really like being at a small school where I can have that connection with my peers and staff,” Atkin said.