There are many sides to Agra senior Rylie Pendergraff.
She’s an All Conference softball player and made it all the way to nationals with a travel team last year.
She’s an all-star on her academic team and was the ninth-highest scorer out of 100 players at conference last year, according to her academic team advisor. She even achieved a 27 on her ACT.
She also loves manga, graphic novels, and dystopian novels and is quick to recommend more than a few, whether prompted or not. In Rylie’s spare time, she creates art of all mediums. She also learns languages for fun.
According to her teachers, Rylie is a hard worker that always goes above and beyond in everything that she does.
“She volunteers her time in many ways for her Senior class, her team, and her school. She works at the elementary in our after-school and summer school programs, too,” said academic team advisor Angela Smith, who has taught Rylie off and on since fifth grade.
“She is an exceptional person who is multi-talented in both the arts and academics, she has a drive to be successful, and a good heart.”
Rylie said softball is a sport that she’s played since she was younger, starting with travel teams before she started with her school team. She’s a catcher and thinks it’s the best.
“I love striking people out and getting to frame the ball. ‘Cause I know the pitch will be way out and and I’ll frame it, and they’ll call it a strike and it just makes you feel really good about yourself,” she said.
She added that she likes the competitive aspect, whether it’s winning or losing. Currently, she acts as the captain for the Agra team, helping out other players since she’s been playing for so long. And while Rylie would love to keep playing at the college level, she’s not sure how to pursue that.
Whether she continues, Rylie certainly has a lot more going for her. She plans to attend Seminole State College to get her basics out of the way, then transfer to the University of Central Oklahoma and go into their forensics program. She hopes to study forensic psychology or criminology.
Rylie said a forensics class two years ago piqued her interest, as well as growing up watching “Criminal Minds” and other CSI-type shows. Ultimately, she hopes to work for the OSBI and her friends jokingly call her Abby, after the character on “NCIS”.
However, that wasn’t her first thought. Originally, Rylie wanted to go into the arts, but she realized that her love for it was more important than turning it into a career.
“I was scared of getting burnt out on art,” she said.
Regardless, art is a big part of Rylie’s life. She creates and sells paintings and uses her skills to create caricatures at school events. She also likes to make little comics, though Rylie admits she hasn’t done it in awhile.
“She can go into Salvation Army, find something, like it, come home and make it how she wants it,” said her mother Ashley Story. “It doesn’t matter what it is. She’s got a good eye for that.”
Rylie said she crafts and crochets. She taught herself how to hand-sew using a kit from Dollar General.
“I do a lot of sewing. Anything and everything. Little stuffed animals like teddy bears out of old shirts and just like, whatever,” she said.
Her mother said that Rylie is very determined. When she sets her mind to something, she’s going to learn it, which is how she started learning languages. At 11, Rylie downloaded the Duolingo app and started learning Dutch.
She said it was because it’s one of the easier languages to learn for English speakers due to the similarities between the languages.
“I’ve been learning a little bit of Chinese, too. I’ll just go on there and learn a little bit of a lot of different languages,” she said.
Rylie is looking forward to a few things. For the rest of her senior year, she’s excited about prom. Beyond that, she said she’s looking forward to her university classes and being out on her own.
“I’m not really that much of a people person, so I won’t be joining a bunch of clubs or anything,” she quipped.
But she appreciates growing up in a small town in Agra, saying that it’s a lot more relaxed and there’s not as much pressure. She called it both a positive and a negative.
“I wish that if there was a little bit more for me to, like, drive towards and get done. But then it’s also like, I get to have a relaxed senior year,” she said. “I get to relax before the storm hits, before I have to go off to college and all that.”
Smith, her teacher, hopes that Rylie is successful in whatever she does beyond Agra.
“I also hope that she never forgets her first love, which is art, and that she is able to be successful in that field in some way as well,” Smith said. “ She is a true artist at heart, her art makes her happy, and I hope for her future happiness in all things!” Editor’s Note: This is the 11th in the Senior Spotlight series that will feature graduating seniors from all of the high schools in The Lincoln County News’ coverage area.