He is obviously a senior, very familiar and friendly to the teachers, occasionally wears a black cap. You may have seen him around or at the very least heard of some of the trouble he caused in the past. Having been here longer than 63% of the staff and every single AP except for Mr. Planas, it’s hard to miss Zachary Fuller.

As much trouble as he has caused in the past, he has redeemed himself in more ways than one. Fuller has been seen climbing parts of the building, as well as using his skills in technology to hack into the school system. Evidently Fuller began high school with no intent of “being good” and following the rules. His tendency to play around made him very familiar with teachers, not just his own.

“I started my freshman year as a bit of a bad kid 5 years ago. I ended up repeating my junior year due to absence fails. Luckily for me, I have had several different teachers and taken several different subjects. As someone who likes to goof off a lot, you make friends with your teachers that way they allow you to do that. Because I have been here so long and bounced between so many classes, it had the byproduct of me getting to know a lot of different teachers. Even teachers that I haven’t necessarily had like Coach Sohel,” states Fuller.

After causing trouble that many students wouldn’t even consider, Fuller became accustomed to suspensions and being escorted out in cuffs.

“My freshman year, I hacked the school’s website to get the phone tree, which has all of the teachers’ personal cell-phone numbers, and I called them. My sophomore year, I went up to the roof of the building with some friends of mine, got suspended for trespassing, and was sent to BIC. My Junior year I got into two fights for unrelated reasons, and then after that I started to clean up my act,” Fuller states.

Officer Do had the experience of catching Fuller in many of his acts and has kept in touch with him. He has known Fuller since he started here at the school, but never had a reason to get closer until his sophomore and first-junior year. Do caught him scaling the building on the school’s security cameras and had to take him in.

“I know Zach well from the activities that he liked to be in. I used to call him Spider-Man because he liked to climb the windows at the school. One day I caught him climbing on the camera,” Do said with a small laugh. “He got pretty high up.”

Do recognizes how much Fuller has grown, and his impressions of the boy have now changed as Fuller became a man. Fuller gets into less trouble now, and the interactions they have are now conversations of their past weekend’s activities.

“I would say that he has matured a lot from when I first met him his junior and sophomore year. He is ready to graduate high school and move on. My impression of him his freshman and sophomore year was that he was going to be a troubled kid, and that we were going to have to deal with him a lot more than necessary. Now that I am seeing him in his junior and senior year, I hardly have contact with him in terms of him doing something wrong. The most is just seeing him in the hallway and have small talk,” states Do.

Not only has Fuller stopped getting into trouble and brought his grades up, he has also mastered skills he enjoys and plans to turn into a career. The technology skills that once got him in serious trouble with the school has landed him a position for MISD.

“I have been working on the 3D printer here at Lake Ridge. I fixed it at the beginning of the year, and I have been running it for the past 5 or 6 weeks. Recently I stopped in order to focus on graduation stuff. I have my certification in technology management as well as soon-to-be my high school diploma, so MISD offered me a job at Summit as an IT person. I personally believe that employment is employment and technology is something that I’m very fond of. So whether it’s in a school or a corporate office, it is something I am going to enjoy,” says Fuller.

Fuller is very aware of the notoriety that follows him along school, and he recognizes that the people around him have valid reasons to believe these certain things. This extra year of high school has helped him move past his previous actions that earned him this fame, and he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I have a reputation among the students because of some of the stuff I have done. And no matter how much I change it follows me, especially around students and some teachers. I think a lot of people see me as the ‘super-senior’ that messes around too much, and ended up failing a grade because of it. And they’re not super far off. I think being held back was nothing but beneficial. I have had a lot of time to mature and become more financially stable before I go off to college. I have spent an extra year in this environment getting everything I need to prepare me. For instance, I took economics again and I feel like I understand taxes better. A lot of the things that high school prepares you for, because I have been here a little bit longer, I have been prepared a little more thoroughly. I had the choice to go to summer school to get my hours in, and I decided not to,” said Fuller.

School librarian, Patricia Becht, has seen Fuller work with the schools technology as well as watched him mature. He has left a positive impression on Becht, and she has recognized his skills and allowed him to grow on them.

“I could tell that he was interested in everything digital. That is why I enlisted him to help with the 3D printer. At the beginning of the year he was only doing it for the interest, but throughout the year he started to become interested to becoming successful academically. I think he has an inherent talent in technology which drives him, so maybe I would say it’s his calling. I told him that he should apply for technology because he excels at it. He has a fun personality, but he can become serious when he needs to,” stated Becht.

Ezray Williams, senior, is a friend of Fuller who has seen him in action with the 3D printer. Williams has seen Fuller grow and he has only positive things to say about him. Williams respects Fuller’s personality and intelligence that he has discovered through their conversations on politics and other common interests.

“When I come down to the library to make prints with a 3D printer, I usually have Library aid, so we go in there and talk. He helps me out with 3D printing and we have a lot of very good discussions. He is very outgoing and he is very rational and reasonable. He is very caring and he is someone who is very honest and those are all very good things. I have seen him grow from being someone who, when I first met him, was pretty laid-back to now somebody who is a lot more apt to engage other people,” said Williams.

Zachary Fuller’s five years at Lake Ridge have been, eventful to say the least. But with many to bare witness, Fuller has grown and matured into the person he is today. He is no longer only marked by the troubles of the first 3 years of his high school experience, but by his ability to grow emotionally and skill wise. The slacking student who caused trouble and walked the school with one more year up his sleeve, will become the master with a diploma and a paid position working for a district he can’t seem to leave.