Ethnographic Summary
Jackson Jones
Quick Bio: Freshman at Clay High School. Wide Receiver for Freshman/JV team, and plays basketball and baseball. Attended Clay Intermediate.
Date: March 3, 2017
Location: Clay High School Cafeteria
Type of observation: Interview
Team participants: Conducted interview alone
Age: 9th grade
Why did he choose Clay High?
- Didn’t really have much of a say; his father was a huge Clay Colonials fan and used to be a big high school athlete when he attended Clay.
Environment:
- Last period of lunch in the Café O’ Clay, the cafeteria on campus. Less than a dozen students were actually eating something.
- Dozen students were roughhousing nearby
Interactions:
- Was hanging out in the cafeteria with Macey Ginzer, who is also a freshman and is deeply involved in sports like Jackson. The two are close teammates, as Macey is the quarterback who sees Jackson, the wide receiver, as his “go-to guy”.
- His basketball coach interrupted the interview, and managed to persuade him to drop trying out for baseball this season. Wanted him to focus on basketball so he can develop into a varsity player, rather than playing JV for three different sports. Coach wants him to follow his father’s footsteps.
Notable comments:
- Being an athlete doesn’t automatically keep you from being involved with the Fine Arts programs on campus. Jackson is definitely interested in dance, singing, and acting. While he identifies sports as the most important activity in his life, fine arts comes as a close second.
- Teachers have been somewhat detached with his development; Jackson suffered from a concussion earlier last season and had to miss several days of school, but never received extra help to help get back on track. Ended up struggling with the course and drop down to a subpar GPA.
- The LGBTQ community is a factor in a lot of reasons why people he knew is transferring of Clay. The transfer students are not necessarily homophobic, but LGBT students often bully others and pester others. Clay is also commonly considered to be a “gay school” according to other research.
- Jackson doesn’t feel safe walking down certain parts of the campus. However, he’s learned which parts to avoid or how to defuse a situation whenever he’s approached by someone he doesn’t know, based on experience.
Key Insights:
- Sports do have some pull power when it comes to deciding schools, like it did in Jackson and his father’s case. But athletes can also be intrigued and motivated by other quality programs, like fine arts, despite the stereotypes that might counter this idea.
- There should be a test on how much quality teachers bring to their students. Jackson believes that a lot of students transfer out because they don’t feel attended to and begin to dislike their teachers. Jackson was grateful when one of his teachers did help him out during his injury, so being able to engage and support students in situations is a key way to retain those enrolled.
