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Aidan Muñoz-Ripley, 17, of Sterling is one of Sterling High School’s November Students of the Month. He is the son of Carlos Muñoz and Rebecca Muñoz-Ripley, and he has a sister, Sam, and brothers, Benjamin, Leighton and Gavino.
Favorite class: I really like psychology. My teacher, Taylor Jackson, keeps it interesting every day. The group of people in the class make it very enjoyable.
Least-favorite class: I'm not the best at statistics.
Favorite teacher: It's a tie between Joel Penne and Steve Johnson. I've known Mr. Penne forever and he just makes his math classroom a great place to be. Mr. Johnson, because of how funny he is, and all the cool demonstrations he would do in class; he also constantly was helping me through his chemistry class.
If you could create any new class at your school, what would be? A higher-level anatomy class, just because I like anatomy.
School activities in which you participate: Football, chess, track, and National Honor Society. The chess team is a great thing to be a part of, it is also a competitive environment where we are constantly going to tournaments. I sometimes volunteer at the YWCA.
How would you describe your group of friends? Supportive, encouraging, diverse, and funny. I can truly say I love a lot of my friends.
What will you do after high school? I will go to college, but I don't know where yet. I will study psychology because it intrigues me.
What is something you learned in high school that you think you'll never use? How to cancel out sine, cosine and tangent in Alexis Rivera's precalculus class. I just don't know where I could use it.
If you could change one thing about your school, what would it be? Have a class rank to encourage people to do better to improve their rank.
What does it take to be a successful high school student? Just hard work. It's all about how badly you want to succeed.
What do you do in your free time? I lift weights, hang with friends, play chess and watch anime.
What is one thing you can't do without? My family. I have no clue how I would survive if my mom, dad, grandpa and grandma were not there for me every step of the way.
What kind of music do you listen to? Most of the time it's rap, but occasionally hip hop if I'm feeling great.
What scares you? Not being able to control the situation; it has started to happen more and more as I get older, which sucks, but something I'm getting better at.
If you could try any job for the day, what would it be? A psychiatrist, so I would know if it's something I would want to do for the rest of my life.
If you could go anywhere in the world for free, where would it be? Japan, because it's the home of ramen and anime.
What is your favorite childhood memory? I don't know if it's my favorite, because that's hard to do, but it's definitely one I think about probably at least once a week. Before my first day of kindergarten, I walked next to Cooper Willman and Tyler Willman, who is 2 years older than Cooper and I. I was so nervous about not being able to find the line outside for my class, and Tyler and Cooper helped me find it. Cooper and I now are best friends; he has been my friend since that day.
What cheers you up? I honestly don't know the best way to cheer me up, but my friends are sure good at it because of how often they're there for me.
What is your life's philosophy? You can always change where you're at whether it's physically or mentally.
What is your favorite ...
Number? 76
App? Snapchat and YouTube
Food? Tacos
Musical artist? A Boogie wit da Hoodie
TV show? "You"
Pro sports teams? Chicago Bears and Montreal Chessbrahs