Wilmes looking to be dentist

TOM PINNEY/DAILY FORUM
Maryville senior Mackenzie Wilmes sorts through mail as part of her duties as the Sixth Hour office assistant. Wilmes will be attending the University of Missouri in Kansas City this fall in hopes of becoming a dentist.

Mackenzie Wilmes has been certain of her life’s direction since one of her adolescent milestones.

In seventh grade, Wilmes got braces. Coincidentally, she decided that year she wanted to be a dentist.

“I couldn’t tell you why,” Wilmes said. “But that year is the year I started researching the job and understanding what it was about, and I realized I wanted to be a dentist.

“Before that I wanted to be an OBGYN, but I found out they had bad hours. They’re also always on call, so it’s hard to have a family.”

Wilmes’ mother was a dental assistant for Dr. Phillip Poynter in Maryville at the time, so the next year Mackenzie started job-shadowing him. She also shadowed Dr. Markham Harris in Maryville and St. Joseph-based orthodontist Dr. Lisa Parker over the next few years.

Now a senior at Maryville High School, Wilmes is gearing up to go to college to become a dentist herself.

“I’m going to the University of Missouri-Kansas City to major in biology with a minor in chemistry,” Wilmes said. “I was choosing between UMKC, the University of Iowa, and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and UMKC just felt like home.

“I chose those three because I wanted to go somewhere that also had a dental school. Iowa was nice, but out-of-state tuition was way too expensive for me. UNL was also very expensive, so I chose UMKC. It’s also close to home, so I can come home when I want to.”

Wilmes said she’s also been in contact with a student in the UMKC dental school to help her figure out the next step in her life.

Wilmes’ dental school dream is just one part of who she is, however. A member of both the National Honor Society and the National Technical Honor Society, Wilmes is involved in several ways at Maryville High School, including serving as president of the Leo Club.

“The Leo Club is a service club,” Wilmes said. “We raise money and choose somewhere to donate it to. Usually, we donate to families in need in the area, working at Northwest basketball games to raise money. We’re also donating to the Freedom Rock.”

Wilmes also serves as a sentinel in the Future Farmers of America club.

“The sentinel is basically the assistant to the president,” Wilmes said. “My duties are checking people in at meetings, standing by the door, and doing what the president needs me to do.”

With FFA, Wilmes has been to two National Conventions. She also does the team competitions in the spring, focusing on dairy foods, nursery landscape, agronomy, and this year, farm management.

Wilmes is also involved in the Octagon Club, running club, and Student Council.

Academically, Wilmes enjoys math and science classes.

“I like math because it’s always been my favorite class, it’s always come easily to me,” Wilmes said. “I love how there’s always one answer to every problem.

“When I was younger, I didn’t like science classes. But I like the human body and chemistry, and science is part of the field I plan to enter.”

Wilmes is also a multi-sport athlete, having competed in track her freshman, junior and will run again this spring, cross-country her sophomore year, and cheerleading throughout high school. On the cheerleading team, she served as co-captain her junior year and captain this year.

Wilmes also did competitive cheerleading from fourth grade until she entered high school. At a younger age, she played community league softball.

When not at school, Wilmes said she enjoyed watching her younger brother play football for Maryville Middle School and baseball for the Northwest Thunder summer team. She also enjoys the Kansas City Royals, the Kansas City Chiefs, and cleaning.

“I’ve always loved cleaning,” Wilmes laughed. “I just love being organized.”

For her traditional “yearbook quote,” Wilmes chose some advice her father gave her.

“‘Don’t put yourself down if you’re doing your best,’” Wilmes recalled. “My dad told me that because, this year I’m enrolled in five dual-credit classes, and there were a bunch of tests that were coming up one right after the other.

“He asked if I was doing my best, and I told him I was, but I didn’t want to disappoint him. He said as long as I was trying my hardest, that’s all he could ask for. And I’ve lived by that since then.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first in a series of articles spotlighting graduating seniors at Maryville High School. This series will culminate later this spring in the announcement of the “Seniors of the Year” from around the county.