Aaron Hodges hopes that his superlative will be “Mr. President” because whenever Assistant Principal Joe Edwards sees him in hallways that is his greeting to Hodges.

Aaron Hodges is a senior at Menchville High School who participates in SAGE, Student Government, Model UN, Mayor’s Youth Delegation, Boys Youth Delegation, and band. In band Hodges plays the Oboe for concerts and the quints for marching band. Hodges started participating in band when he was in the sixth grade.

Hodges enjoys watching movies. He says his current favorite is Interstellar.  Hodges also enjoys composing music. The senior likes to compose many different genres of music, such as jazz and classical. AP Music Theory is his favorite class on his schedule this year because it helps him construct his compositions.

After high school, Hodges plans to attend college and major in bio-med engineering and minor in music.  He has not applied to any colleges in Virginia. Instead he decided to apply to colleges such as Harvard, and Yale. Hodges received an early acceptance to Yale by phone call. When he received the call the senior “didn’t know what to say.”

Out of all of his years at Menchville, Hodges would say that his ninth grade year was his favorite because it was his first time being a page for the Virginia House of Delegates. Being a part of this organization meant that Hodges was in Richmond for 9 weeks at a time. Eventually, Hodges became head page in the delegation. In his sophomore year, Hodges attended The Governor’s School for the Arts at Radford University. He was accepted into the program for his Oboe skills.

Hodges thinks that the biggest change he has seen in Menchville is the amount of online classes offered. One piece of advice the senior would give to his Freshmen self would be to “eat breakfast” and “enjoy myself.” For Freshmen in general, Hodges would say to “have an idea of your career” and “take advantages of your opportunities” and participate in different youth commissions.

One thing that Hodges hopes his fellow Monarchs will remember about him is that he “interacted with different groups.” If his life were a television show, Hodges would have “Party Like It’s 1999” by Prince as the theme song. In fact, Hodges dressed up as Prince for “Hall Of Fame” day of spirit week. His top three high school memories are the Homecoming Parade his freshmen year, going to Hawaii with the band to play in the Pearl Harbor Remembrance Ceremony, and going to London with the band his freshmen year to play in the New Year’s Day Parade.

Hodges described Menchville as being unified through the “hearts of Monarchs” and through spirit. Being a Monarch to the senior means “not being afraid to try new things” and taking advantage of the opportunities offered by the community while giving back.

The quote Hodges lives by is said by Maya Angelou: “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”