Ferris senior Carly Crooks lost her mom, grew up quickly, and soars

As Carly Crooks strides down the hallways of Ferris High School, she looks around to the places where she’s accomplished so much.

She passes the room where she spent three years in the French club. She passes the room where she founded the writing club and spent three years as the editor-in-chief of its publication. She passes the gym, where she captained the dance team. And in most rooms in the school, she’s spent time maintaining a 3.95 GPA.

It’s not a stretch to say Crooks’ classmates and teachers view her as a near-perfect student. She remembers raising her hand in class and answering a question wrong, and an audible wave of small gasps spread through the room. And her test scores are used as benchmarks for other students’ success.

“It’s always been weird to know that I’m in the spotlight,” she said.

But a glance at Crooks and her resume doesn’t tell of the pain she and her family have endured: When she was 6, her mother, Laura Crooks, died. Carly was the only other person in the room when she collapsed.

Her father, Gary Crooks, was tasked with raising her alone. Since he worked full time, Carly said he couldn’t be checking to see if she did her homework or earned good grades.

“It’s kind of been remarkable that she soldiers on,” said Gary Crooks.

“My biggest struggle would be growing up with a single dad,” Carly Crooks said. “but in the same sense that it was a struggle, it shaped me into who I am today.”

Crooks’ “perfectionism” – good grades and excelling in extracurricular activities – was a way to make life easier for her dad, she said.

“I had the capability to get myself through this,” she said. “While it was nice to have a support system, I knew I could do it on my own and make someone else’s life a little bit easier.”

Crooks said she had trouble making friends as a kid. She didn’t see the world in the same way as most students, she said, because without her mom, she had to help her dad by raising herself.

“When you’re a kid, being even a little more mature can alienate you,” she said. “You’re not as carefree.”

Among all of Crooks’ activities and class subjects, her writing sets her apart.

“Writing is where I feel the most true and the most open,” Crooks said.

Crooks has been steeped in the craft of writing since birth. Both her parents were journalists and both worked for The Spokesman-Review – her mom as a reporter and editor and her dad as editorial page editor.

Since her days as a student at Chase Middle School, her writing has brought teachers to tears, Gary Crooks said.

One of Carly Crooks’ stories stood out from the other students’. More than 10,000 words long, it told of a young mute girl who moved to a new school and met a girl who’s an outcast. The two become each other’s hero.

“It was a ‘little things in life’ kind of story,” she said.

The praise she received from her teacher after reading that story stuck with her, she said.

Crooks has also harnessed writing as an outlet for emotions surrounding her mother’s passing.

“She’s a terrific writer,” said Gary Crooks. “That’s one of her ways of working things through.”

In an excerpt from a middle-school book report, Carly wrote, “When my mother was dying in the hospital, I had to wait with my brother at our neighbor’s house. Wait for what I was worried my dad would say. That she isn’t coming home. I still wish I had said ‘I love you’ to her before it happened.”

When she read the whole story aloud to her middle-school class, she held her composure, said Gary Crooks.

Carly Crooks recently earned second place for English in the Spokane Scholars Foundation Awards and a $3,000 scholarship. She’ll put the prize toward fees at the University of Washington in the fall.

With one foot in the door at UW, she doesn’t know what she wants to do with her career, although she pictures herself going into the medical administration or tech field for engineering or computers.

She doesn’t plan on spending so much time on French, dance or writing, but nothing is off the table.

“It probably will happen,” she said with a laugh.

At UW, she’ll stride past hundreds more classrooms where she can find more ways to express herself and make life easier for others.

“My biggest aspiration,” she said, “is wanting to make a difference.”