“It’s nice to know our school has come so far that we can have two openly gay dudes win in a row. It definitely means a lot that so [many] people wanted to see me crowned,” Harris said.
Harris is the eldest, with two younger sisters, and owns a chocolate labrador named Sharkie. He grew up influenced by various performing role models, including Shakira and Michael Jackson, and credits them with becoming the person he is today.
Harris is active in Jazz Choir, musical theater, two AP classes and enjoys figure skating in his free time. His grandmother inspired him to join at the age of seven and he became a part of a skating team when he was sixteen.
“You need to be comfortable being uncomfortable,” Harris’s coach, Ainus, told him, and this advice has stuck with him since.
His passion for music is what drove him to join musical theater. He started his musical career in third grade when he joined ‘Broadway Bound Kids.’ Harris was a part of the MSA program and the Novato High swim team before coming to San Marin two years ago.
Swimming had been a favorite sport for him, saying that the team had been a big part of his life.
Harris hopes to attend a liberal arts school and plans to major in World Language and Culture. He wants to travel the world and perform for everyone.
He also enjoys learning new languages, and is currently learning French, Spanish and Portuguese. He advocates strongly for immigration, the homeless and global awareness.
Harris also hopes to see San Marin more involved in performing arts and music one day. His ideas for involvement include seeing marching bands play at halftimes, show choir being more involved at rallies and starting bigger art programs. However, he fears that art may disappear if schools do not fund the needed supplies for those programs.
“A society with art is a happy society,” Harris said. “Art is something worth fighting for. If we didn’t have art, what would we be fighting for?”
