Salutatorian
Academy High School
GPA: 4.39
Where do you plan to attend college and what do you plan to major in?
University of Texas at Dallas for mechanical engineering.
What are your career plans after college?
I will be pursuing a career in engineering or computer science.
What school activities/clubs have you been involved in?
I was the captain of my school's ultimate frisbee team up until senior year when I co-founded the first eSports team.
What Plano ISD teacher(s) impacted you the most and how?
My 8th grade history teacher, Mr. David Welch, ignited my passion for project-based learning. His class was one where I felt that I could show my learning through doing.
What is the most interesting school project/assignment you have been involved with?
In 10th grade, I participated in the project "Beneath the Surface." I was tasked with representing a country's interests in model United Nations assemblies as well as designing, building, and testing/competing with a motorized submersible. This was by far the best project at the Academy because it best showed off the interdisciplinary vision of the school. Each class had an important role to play in the project. I loved this project so much, it definitely affected my interest in engineering as well as model UN in college.
What is your favorite school memory?
I would have to say that the model United Nations general assembly in 10th grade was the most memorable project presentation. Getting to object to the fallacies my friends were using, hearing the wacky proposals, all while representing our countries created moments that my friends reference even today.
What advice do you have for future high school graduates?
Try new things. It's so easy to say "be yourself," but you have to figure out what kind of "yourself" you want to be first. Take senior year to experiment with different careers, different clothes, different personalities even. People have told me I'll find myself at college, but why wait? You might find you'll be safer, happier, and more comfortable in your future.
What have you learned about yourself during this historic senior year that you will apply to your future?
In my senior capstone project, I chose to challenge myself to learn how to program scripts in Python. I previously had little to no knowledge of programming, and I am impressed with how much I was able to achieve in such a short time. Part of this learning was finding out how much I enjoy the process of programming. Because of this project, I am going to look for programming jobs and internships during summer as well as taking a minor in computer science.
