Max Wellman, junior, has a bookshelf lined with trophies: childhood soccer and baseball trophies, Kirkwood summer swim team awards, a third place trophy in the Nipher-North Math Competition. But Wellman’s favorite trophies didn’t win first place or even get close. These trophies are from Boy Scout car races, and Wellman emphasizes that though his cars weren’t always fast, they looked really cool.

TKC: Tell me a little bit about yourself.

MW: I like math and science. I’m a year up in math and I’m [taking] AP Calculus and AP Statistics at the same time.

TKC: Is it hard taking both at the same time?

MW: No, Stats is pretty easy.

TKC: Are you a big STEM person?

MW: Yeah, that’s just what I like in school. I went to an engineering camp over the summer [at] Missouri S&T [about] all types of engineering. Every day [we] did a different type. One day was nuclear engineering, one day was metallurgical engineering, one day was ceramics engineering. We got to do some hands-on stuff, some of it was them just telling us about [engineering]. I got to pour glass into a mold.

TKC: How do you spend your free time?

MW: I’m in a couple of clubs. I’m in the Ultimate Frisbee Club. It’s a lot of fun. I was doing Chess Club and Equations Club. [Equations is] a game about math.

TKC: Favorite book?

MW: I do read a lot, so I should have a favorite book. I liked “Ender’s Game” a lot, and I like a lot of other books by that same author, [Ernest Cline].

TKC: Favorite restaurant?

MW: During the pandemic, I ate a lot of Chipotle. I really like that, but it’s always so crowded now.

TKC: Favorite class?

MW: Chemistry.

TKC: Favorite KHS teacher:

MW: Mr. Phillips, AP Stats.

TKC: What are you most looking forward to right now?

MW: In a couple weeks, I’m going camping with the Boy Scouts. It’s a trip called Acai. We go to a place called Fort Massac and it’s basically like Greentree but a really big version, like an old fair. They have really good lemonade there.

Another thing I’m looking forward to is a different Boy Scout camping trip. These are my two favorite ones. This one is in the winter time. We ski and snowboard. I do it every year. I love it.

TKC: Are you trying for Eagle Scout?

MW: I already got it.

TKC: What was your Eagle Scout project?

MW: I made a cabinet for Keysor. Not just a regular cabinet. I made a shelf where you put spiritwear. People who need spiritwear can come and take it out.

TKC: What are you most anxious about or dreading?

MW: German tests.

TKC: What are those trophies for?

MW: These are Boy Scout things. This is where you make [and race] cars. I don’t think I got any first place trophies there, because when I make the cars, I just try to make them look cool, like this caterpillar one and this violin one. I made a lot of them. I also made this broomstick one.

TKC: What’s one thing you would change about the world?

MW: I don’t know about the world, but one thing I’d like to have happen is better elections. The ones we have are really awful in so many ways.

TKC: Is there anything else you want to talk about?

MW: This is another memory. So when I was in middle school, for some reason — I don’t remember why exactly — I wanted to be a Pacman arcade machine for Halloween. I didn’t just, you know, go out and buy a Pacman arcade machine. I got a cardboard box and I built it. I built and painted a big cardboard frame. I stuck my head inside the window, I was inside the box.