Ian McDavid, 16

Ian knows a thing or two about the court system - from the right side of the law: As a volunteer at Teen Court and a member of Palmer High School's mock trial team, the soon-to-be senior in high school is getting a foot in the door for his intended career.

With other Teen Court volunteers, he helps determine sentences for teenage defendants.

He's involved in the International Baccalaureate, or IB, program at Palmer. His mom said Ian took the necessary steps to be accepted into the program, which, according to the organization's Web site, provides rigorous academics with an emphasis on intercultural understanding.

"My husband and I moved Ian from Manitou Middle School to Palmer High School so that he could make a ‘fresh start' in a more diverse community with a wider offering of program choices," Anne McDavid wrote in nominating Ian as a Great Kid. "We started Ian off in the regular program of classes. Ian quickly decided he wanted to be in the IB program at Palmer. Completely on his own he took the initiative to do what needed to be done to become accepted into the program."

Ian is participating in a charity bike ride Aug. 1 that benefits people with Parkinson's disease. He's accepting pledges at his Web site for the ride, organized by The Colorado Cyclist Copper Triangle to benefit the Davis Phinney Foundation.

"He marches to his own drummer in all sorts of ways," Ian's mom wrote of her son.

Ian is staying busy on his summer break pitching in with the Pikes Peak Corps. The Rocky Mountain Field Institute selected about 10 high school students who were willing to spend eight to nine hours each day from June 1 to July 2 doing trails maintenance and other environmenal restoration work.

Anne McDavid said that Ian gets to Garden of the Gods at 6:30 a.m. each day to perform labor such as building water bars and hauling rocks until 3 p.m.

"He's getting strong!" she said.


Q&A with Ian

What do you do as a volunteer for Colorado Springs Teen Court?

"At Teen Court, on most days I sit in the peer panel where I speak with defendants along with other Teen Court volunteers, and we find a sentence for them."


Tell me more about Teen Court

"We do have a real role in that person's trial; it is a real sentence and hearing ... That's at the Municipal Courthouse every Tuesday at 3 o'clock.
"The reason for (teen defendants) going there is that if they participate in Teen Court, the sentence is released from their record. It goes through some hoops as if it never happened."

(For details about Colorado Springs Teen Court, visit the Web site csteencourt.org.)


How did you get involved in Teen Court and mock trials?

"Well, with Teen Court, I wanted to help out the community. But kind of both those go along with, I hope to go to law school. I might even try to come back and try to find a job in the legal profession here in the Springs."


What did you have to do to get into the IB program?

"I went from Manitou Springs Middle School, which doesn't have any of those programs. Took a couple honors classes. ... Most of my classmates who've been in IB, they were just in IB in middle school and went straight through to high school. So I had to apply separately to the program. Then, you had to get teacher recommendations."


Your mom said she wanted you to go to Palmer High School so you could be in a diverse environment with lots of program choices. Do you enjoy Palmer and agree about the diversity?

"Yeah, I really do. Palmer, it has a little bit of everything in that it's in the downtown environment ... the sense that I get is almost as if you're in a college campus. I mean not exactly like that, but you have more freedom to go around; you're more of a student then a prisoner of the school."


What are your future plans?

"I'm looking at Denver University, Colorado University, and a couple of out-of-state schools for undergraduate. And I'd like to go to the law school that I went to for undergrad.


What do you like about living in Colorado Springs?

For one, the environment. It's a really pleasant atmosphere. I rock-climb, and I road bike, so I have opportunities to do both of those here. And it's also got Pikes Peak, and regional history to it. So it's just a beautiful place to live."


What would you like to see improve about Colorado Springs?

"This might be a really small thing, but I'd like to see more conscientious tourists. Like when I ride through the Garden (of the Gods), people are parked in the bike lanes. I'd like to see less industrial tourism, and more people just checking things out."


Philanthropy

Shaved his head in March for St. Baldrick's Day fundraiser, which helps kids with cancer; doing a charity bike ride Aug. 1 (details: coppertriangle.com/index.html).