A 4.0 grade point average, an International Baccalaureate diploma and admission to prestigious Yale University are a few of the fruits of Jenna McGuire’s meticulous labor.

Getting into an exceptional college was a goal the Flathead High School senior set at a young age. McGuire realized her accomplishment in March.

“I was so excited. I called a whole bunch of people and spent about three hours on the phone running through one person’s excitement and then onto the next,” McGuire said.

McGuire has had college on the brain, she estimates, since age of 4 1/2.

“Little kids play school. I played college,” McGuire said.

Living on her own in a new location, engaging with peers and being in a collegiate environment captivated her imagination.

“Just [being in] the new place is so much of an education — and then when you put all of the academic stuff on top of that — it’s just a really intense learning experience,” McGuire said.

McGuire will enter Yale’s Directed Studies program her freshman year. Only 125 freshmen are accepted into the program annually. The Directed Studies Program immerses students in Western civilization studies.

“You study a course in historical and political thoughts, in philosophy, and of course, literature. They go through it chronologically together, so you’re learning all three things in one time period and then moving on. You get a cohesive development of Western thought over time,” McGuire said.

Although she hasn’t decided on a major, McGuire is interested in business and a career that involves negotiation.

“The most interesting part about history is how countries solve their problems, and I just enjoy the process of conflict resolution because I’m in high school — people get into conflicts all the time,” McGuire said.

In other academic achievements, McGuire was named a 2014 National Merit Finalist, representing less than one percent of the nation’s high school seniors. In 2012 she received a Crail/Carr Poetry Award and her work was published in an anthology.  

In addition to academics, McGuire participated in theater, varsity tennis, speech and debate (Oratory), plays piano, is a middle school volleyball coach at St. Matthew’s School and works in a community garden. She also enjoys spending time with her family, quilting and kayaking.

McGuire attributes the academic milestones — while participating in extracurriculars — to her focused dedication on completing one task at a time rather than multitasking.

“It’s hard, but it works,” McGuire said noting that she’d rather do each task really well than multiple tasks adequately.

“I get up early and do my homework in the morning and that really helps because that way, I definitely go to bed at a certain time,” McGuire said. “That way I get enough sleep and I don’t go insane.”  

After spending so many years striving to be accepted at a top college, McGuire paused to think of what new goals are on the horizon.

“My goals have been academic for so long, or even extracurricular-related, that I haven’t thought probably as much as I should have what I want to do in my personal life,” McGuire said.

However, McGuire knows she wants to write a novel, learn an Asian language and travel to Ireland, Argentina and Japan.

She wants to travel to Ireland because of family history.

Reading “Siddhartha” in 11th grade also inspired her desire to travel.

“The thing about eastern culture is that it’s so different from western culture,” McGuire said.

McGuire said she wants to travel to Argentina for its beauty described by her father who has traveled there. “I love it because it has penguins on one end and piranhas on the other, so there’s just everything,” she said.

Her goal to write a novel stems from her favorite pastime, reading.

“I love to read, that is what I do,” McGuire said.

The avid reader cited the duality of the main character in “Artemis Fowl” as sparking her love of books.

“What got me so excited about that series was the main character was evil, but you still liked him in a lot of ways, so it just amazed me how complicated a character could be,” McGuire said. “I love the way authors can create something so real yet so imaginative at the same time.  I’d like to figure out how to do that some day and write a novel.”

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or by email at hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.