A man of leadership and confidence that weaves his way through the school jumping from club to club, John Hulsman is always around to make connections and keep busy. And when we say busy, we mean busy. Hulsman is the president for both the Business (while also completing the business CTE Pathway) and Esports clubs, while maintaining the future of the Chess Club, the sport swim, and a multitude of AP and Honors classes and the CTE Pathway of Child Development.

Primarily playing League of Legends (LOL) in his Esports activities, Hulsman finds joy in a multitude of other video games. As the team captain for LOL, he has created deeper bonds and lifelong friends because of the game. While Hulsman enjoys the competitive side of games, he finds true joy in single player games as well.

His favorite video game series is Resident Evil, having beaten almost every game in the eight titled entries, and even attempting to speed run it. Gaming has heavily impacted Hulsman, and is used as a creative outlet for him to try new opportunities and stretch his creativity to better his critical thinking skills.

“John’s changed my life. He’s made me so much more confident in myself and just helped me not care what other people think of me anymore,” Joseph Childers(10) said, a friend of Hulsman.

Childers originally met Hulsman when he was referring to video games, and was offered a place in the ESports Club. Since then, the two of them have been inseparable, with Hulsman teaching Childers about the world and how to navigate through it.
All of these activities fuel his desire to connect with others.

Originally starting high school feeling closed off to his classmates, Hulsman joined the Business and Early Child Development class in his Sophomore year. Guided by his sister who was originally in the business pathway, the business club president, and played swim along with water polo.
Hulsman took both pathways and combined them together for a future career, although he dropped water polo his junior year and joined back with the swim team his senior year.

“It’s important that you feel that energy around you and put it into something really progressive. I think that swimming is something that makes you feel like you’re doing something incredible. At recent meets I swam faster than ever, and it’s just an incredible feeling to know that you’re doing something like that,” Hulsman said.

Despite the difficulty of balancing all of these extra activities on top of school, Hulsman still finds time to hang out with friends and his boyfriend Milo Lozano(12). Originally began dating in the summer of their freshman year, Hulsman and Lozano have been together for three years. With him having to move away their junior year, Lozano has still acted as a pillar of support for him to fall back on when Hulsman faces struggles of missing assignments and scheduling for sports and clubs.

The homosexual relationship came as a surprise for Hulsman’s parents with his father being Catholic and mother being Christian, but were ultimately supportive of his bi-sexuality.

Inspired by his fellow classmate, one of his best friends Liliana Voorheis(12) has stuck with him for the past two years. Despite being filled with differences, such as Voorheis being a strong believer of Christianity, the two of them have developed a support system to keep one another on track of their classes and mental health.

“He really has inspired me to be a better person. He’s so much different then I am but he’s been able to show me the different beliefs he has and why he has them, and that’s made me much more open and firm in my own beliefs,” Voorheis said.
Because of this positive reinforcement, Hulsman has the desire to approach the American Education System and change it for the better.

He began with the Bear Kittens and continued his educational journey by applying to a multitude of colleges for scholarships. With his highest payed scholarship being $50,000 dollars, and getting into nine out of the 10 colleges he applied to.

With plans on going to Point Loma for college in order to fulfill his dreams of connection, He plans to be an elementary school teacher and wants to keep his love of others bright and help all the children he can to make their futures better.