Student Spotlight: Jean-Philippe Parr
November 10, 2021
Now that the colder weather is upon us in Ontario, we’re already reminiscing about warmer, sunnier times when we could do our favourite things with our favourite people. Golf is one of the sports that became extremely popular over the past two summers with COVID-19 restrictions in place, as many of our VHS staff members can attest to. In honour of our new passion for golf, let’s take a look at Jean-Philippe Parr, a VHS student who recently won the Canadian Junior Boys Championship!
At the age of four, Jean-Philippe picked up a golf club and the rest, as they say, was history. Although he’s also a fan of basketball and excelled on his school team, his true passion has always been golf. He’s spent the past several years travelling across the globe with Team Canada, but he highlights Northern Ireland as his favourite destination so far.
A resident of Quebec, Jean-Philippe was thrilled to win the Canadian Junior Boys Championship at Vallée du Richelieu in Sainte-Julie, Quebec this past August:
“That is something that made me really proud because it’s a tournament I’ve been wanting to win, and it was really nice to see all my hard work pay off.”
Jean-Philippe looks up to golfer Jordan Spieth as his role model. He admires Jordan’s attitude, work ethic, and willingness to always take time to chat with his fans. However, Jean-Philippe also credits his parents for helping to shape him into the kind, hardworking person he has become. He recognizes how much they have had to sacrifice to help ensure that their children are happy and have the chance to achieve their goals. The golf world owes them a great debt for supporting and encouraging such a talented, young golfer.
As any parent with a child on a sports team can confirm, there is often a lot of travelling involved with competitive sports. Jean-Philippe and his parents needed an education option that would allow him to travel to tournaments and focus on his training schedule:
“I had heard through a few different friends who had tried VHS and loved it because of it being so much easier with all the travelling we do for golf. After some conversations with my parents, we decided that VHS would be good for me and would give me a lot of flexibility to practice and travel.”
Since Virtual High School offers a completely online, asynchronous model, Jean-Philippe was able to keep up with his schoolwork and stay on track to graduate with his peers:
“School is very important to me, and even if sometimes I’d rather be doing something other than school, VHS makes it interesting and easy to learn.”
Always looking ahead, Jean-Philippe has made the decision to commit to the University of Tennessee next fall to pursue his academic and golf careers at one of the best golf programs in the United States! He hasn’t quite decided what he’d like to study just yet, but since his favourite subject is math he thinks that he’ll likely pursue something in business or finance.
With borders starting to reopen, Jean-Philippe has plenty of golf tournaments scheduled for the coming year, including some in Hawaii, France, and Japan! Keep your eye on the sports channels over the next few years. We have no doubt that you’ll be seeing the name Jean-Philippe Parr as a leader in the charts over and over again!