Waking up every morning and preparing for school, senior Joshua Steffens drives over to Klein Collins at 6:15 a.m. to hold the door open for its bustling students at 6:30. There, he often plays classical music as bus riders and band kids storm through the building each morning up until 7:15 a.m., when the first period bell rings. 

Senior Joshua Steffens, also known as Josh or ‘The Door Guy’, for four years now, has arrived early to school in order to be there before the hundreds of other students who’d shove through the building. It didn’t take long before the school caught on and began making up nicknames for Steffens.

“It started as a variety of names, like ‘door dude’ or ‘guy at the door’, but ‘Door Guy’ was the most common so I just promoted it,” Steffens said. “I even have it on a nametag. I bought it upon suggestion sophomore year. It has the quote, ‘Be an opener of doors,’  from Ralph Waldo Emerson engraved on it.”

Steffens enjoys helping others in any way possible, but his reserved exterior made it hard for him to make friends until he started getting recognized for his kind heart.

“He’s always been shy,” senior Rayven Barrow, a friend of Steffens, said. “He stayed to himself a lot unless you talked to him, which I randomly did one day and then we became friends. He’s always there for people and he is such a gentleman. Josh isn’t really scared of anything and believes everything happens for a reason. He’s helped me through a lot of hard times.” 

Steffens’ acts of kindness date back to his elementary school days. Not having a lot of friends made him more inclined to helping those around him.

“I started because when I was much younger- I held the door at my church with my dad on Sundays every now and then,” Steffens said.  “And I didn’t have any friends my freshman year so I was bored in the morning. I’d open it for myself and people would just stream through so I figured I would just hold the door. I just would stand there every morning, and it developed into something special.” 

Considering we’re in the midst of a pandemic, some modifications have been made to our academic school year. Many students are learning from home and social distancing within the school makes holding the door this year a lot less crowded than previous years. 

“It’s definitely different,” Steffens said. “Now students aren’t allowed to crowd the hallways as much as they used to. So, for example, just a few minutes before the final bell rang to be tardy to first period, you’d have this flood of band kids all coming from the band hall along with orchestra students and choir students coming through. And now, that doesn’t really happen.” 

Steffens has proven to be quite adamant on helping others. His companions are proud of his accomplishments and only have good things to say about him.

“He’s a great friend who is genuinely interested in everything from your life problems to your random curious thoughts,” senior Adam Ulbrich, who has also known Josh since freshman year, said. “He is one of the hardest working students I’ve ever met; once he has his mind set to a goal it’s nearly impossible for him to let it down.” 

Steffens was in ROTC before deciding he longed to pursue a career in the health field because of his passion for medicine.

“He is a very good student,” AP Physics teacher Juergen Schulz, who has known Steffens for two years, said. “He would make a discerning chiropractor some day. It has been his favorite topic in AP Physics 2”.  

Steffens has made it clear that he enjoys helping people and wants to be a physician after going to Baylor for a bachelors in neuroscience. This way, he can continue helping those around him.