The e-Communication program at Olathe Northwest has produced
many successful alumni over the past 12 years.
But only 2014 grad Johnny Carver can say he has published a
book.
Carver, a graduate from the Sports Information Director and
Convergence Journalism wing of e-Comm, is glad he spent two years of his high
school career in e-Comm.
“I definitely enjoyed my time in the program,” Carver said.
“
Most of my memories at
ONW come
from the e-Comm program.”
Carver
transferred to ONW from Shawnee Mission Northwest before his junior year, and
had no intention of joining SID or Convergence Journalism.
“My
counselor brought up the SID program when I was trying to make my schedule,”
Carver said. “At the time, my basketball career was my primary focus, but I
jumped on the opportunity.”
During
his first year in the program, Carver wrote very few stories and mainly focused
on learning everything about sports that he could.
“Most
of the things I learned junior year were from a senior named Scott Chasen,”
Carver said. “I’ve always felt like I was the smartest sports mind of any
of my friends, and he was the first person to really challenge me.”
Then
during the summer before his senior year, Carver discovered that he had a nerve
disorder that would end his basketball career.
“After
I lost my basketball playing career, I wanted to find another outlet to be
successful.”
Success
in e-Comm is what he found.
Because
of his inability to play basketball, he focused on writing a book. His book determined
the greatest NBA player of all time.
“I came
up with the idea to write Ranketology: A
New Way of Determining Basketball’s Greatest Player,” Carver said. “The
book is based on a statistical algorithm that I created to determine the
greatest player in the history of the NBA.”
Carver
spent the summer of 2013 and his senior year working on it, and it was
published during the fall of 2014.
The
book became available on Amazon in January and has opened many doors for Carver
since then.
“I’ve
been contacted by a number of NBA teams, and I’ve been on lots of local news
networks and sports radio shows in the United States and Canada.”
Carver
already had the skills and knowledge to write the book, but credits the e-Comm
program with supporting him through the process.
“I
couldn’t have written the book without the support of the e-Comm program,”
Carver said.
As
his book grows in popularity, he is reminded of the school and program that
helped him get there.
“It
sounds like the school is promoting [my book] even after I graduated. It
shows me how much they care about my success.”
Carver,
a current Arkansas student studying business, fully recommends the
SID/Convergence program, knowing that it helped him get into the college he
wanted to and helping him decide what he wants to do with his life.
“I
think it’s the easiest way for anyone in high school to show his or her
creativity and find a future career path,” Carver said. “That’s a huge
advantage when selecting colleges and classes once you get there.”
In
the end, Carver hopes to inspire other kids in the program to set goals and
have the drive to reach them.
“I
just hope that other kids that come through the program dream as big as I have,”
Carver said. “I had to imagine where I wanted to be in order to carve my path
for the future. My goals and expectations were always higher than others
around me, and so far it’s paid off.”
If you would like to purchase his book. Here is the link to
Amazon.
With a family of Olathe Northwest alums and more specifically e-Comm alumni, Chase Lawrence was one of the lucky few who knew what she was going to do in high school.
Her websites usually try to express very interactive with simple designs and simple colors but with a modern style to that gives the sites her signature theme.
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