SNAPSHOTS

Favorite food: Sushi

Favorite app: TikTok

Best school subject: Math

Brushing your teeth before breakfast or after: Before breakfast

Rainy days or sunny days: Sunny days

ZOOMING IN

Q: What college will you attend? What is your intended major?

A: “I will be attending the University of Texas at Austin. My major is going to be computer science, so with UT Austin I’ll be in the honors program for polymathic scholars.”

Q: What extracurriculars have you been involved in throughout high school?

A: “In terms of just Lewisville, I’m part of JWAC, NHS, Mu Alpha Theta, StuCo, BPA, DECA and HOSA. Outside of school, I have my own non-profit organization called Operation Serve DFW. We use the passion of our members to make a difference in the community. The reason why I created it is because during COVID-19, everything was really bad, and there were lots of things I wanted to make a difference of. We started with our group of friends, we came together and it got bigger. We raised up to $100,000 for dialysis patients with some other non-profits. I have an internship for a data science company, so I work with the CEO of a data science company where I research for them and publish articles.”

Q: What was the most challenging aspect about balancing extracurriculars and academics?

A: “The biggest challenge for me was making sure I don’t lose myself throughout this whole entire transition. The biggest thing is balance. Throughout working really hard and having extracurriculars, I always make sure I have at least an hour to be on my phone or talk to my friends. Especially during the weekend, I always hang out with my friends. I’ll be doing so much work and there’s a lot going on, I’ll just realize I’m losing myself with it. I have to remind myself academics are not everything in your life. My mindset is, ‘If I die tomorrow and I didn’t do the things that I love, and didn’t get to experience and have memories with my friends…I don’t want to have any regrets.’ That’s why, even with all the things that I do, I make sure I have time with my friends and going out and having fun.”

Q: What class was the most challenging for you? Why?

A: “Probably honor pre-calculus. The reason why it was hard is because it was a lot of work, very specific topics and it’s very complex. The major thing about that class, I had to put a lot of time into it and it was almost two to three hours a day to just understand what it was and to do the homework. Mrs. Chiles is such a great teacher and she always helped me through everything. I used to go to her tutoring every single morning before a test. Even if something is hard, just make sure you are putting effort. It’s not the end of the world and eventually I understood.”

Q: Who has helped you the most throughout these last four years? How have they helped you?

A: “Specifically I would talk about Mr. Gonzalez, my English 3 teacher. The reason why he helped me so much, he was there through everything. It was the year after COVID-19 I had his class. Everything was really bad, there was not much communication. We were so used to being at home and so many people lost themselves. I kind of forgot how to communicate with other people and go back to normal life. He created an environment where there was no judgment and you can just be yourself. He was super helpful throughout the AP exam season and through college applications, he was always there. For English 3, I wrote an essay every single day and had him look over it. It was a lot of work for him, but I really appreciate that he took his time out. There’s a bunch of teachers here for their jobs, but I believe he’s here not only for his job but to help other people. Without his help, I don’t think I’d be able to do that many things I’ve been able to do today.”

Q: What has been the most memorable part of high school?

A: “The most memorable part of high school is the school related trips I have done with HOSA, DECA and BPA. Specifically, I will talk about the DECA one I went to recently. I did make internationals for that organization, so we were able to go to Orlando. The best thing about that is I had around a 10 minute presentation, but for the rest of six days we were able to go to the hotel for free. We got to go to Universal Orlando and I got to meet so many new people. Being able to be in an environment where I get to meet new people, see what other people have gone through and enjoy time with my friends without thinking about school was amazing. We stayed out so late, we would DoorDash and we would go to so many different things. I’m scared of roller coasters, so they took me to ‘The Mummy and The Mummy’ is not scary at all, but I cried before it even started. Eventually I went on it again and I didn’t cry. All these experiences are something I will always take home because during school you get so caught up with everything that those moments where you can finally not think about it is the most fun.”

Q: What advice would you give to your freshman self?

A: “I would suggest taking more AP classes. The problem is I moved to Lewisville halfway through [junior year]. I self-sabotaged myself when I came here. It was a sudden change when I moved from Coppell to Lewisville, I knew my friends for 10 years and I was kind of mad with the whole situation. I feel like I self-sabotaged myself by making sure I didn’t talk to anyone. I made the year really bad for me. I would tell my younger self, ‘I know you’re mad at your situations. It’s not your fault or your mom’s fault, it’s just how life is.’ I feel like I would have enjoyed the year so much better. Every single day is so important especially since time goes by so fast.”

Q: What are you most excited about regarding college?

A: “The one thing about high school [is] you are with the same people all four years. Going to college, not only are you going to see people from different countries, cities and states, but I’m having to be challenged with changing who I am and understanding myself more. Personally, I don’t necessarily have the time to understand myself. I love my mom and my family and how much they did for me, but when you separate yourself from your family and separate yourself from academics, I’ll be able to understand more who I am. I want to learn more about myself, so I can become a better person. Everyone has something they can work on, and I have a lot of things I can work on. By going to college and seeing what I like and what I have to fix, it gives an environment where I can not only have other people to reach out to and learn more about them, but with them I can grow as a person.”

Q: Where do you hope to see yourself in 10 years?

A: “My plan is to major in computer science, hopefully be a quantitative analyst, a software engineer or something like that. Make money, save money, and I don’t want to work often, I kind of want a chillax life. I really want to go into business, not major business but maybe have an Airbnb or a hotel. Switching off from working a nine to five and if I like it, I’ll stay in it, especially depending on what my benefits are. After that, I’d go into other sorts of business like stocks or Airbnb and real estate, just kind of learning what the market is in 10 years.”

Q: What would you change about your high school experience?

A: “I just wished in 11th grade that I didn’t self sabotage myself. It wasn’t my mom’s fault or anything, we just had to abruptly move here. Saying goodbye to my friends of almost 10 to 11 years was really heartbreaking for me. I wasn’t really much of an extrovert and starting up from scratch and being the new girl made me realize how hard it is. I wished it would’ve been better if I really pushed that out, and even if the scenario wasn’t the best for me, I should’ve taken advantage of whatever I had and be grateful. Of course now I’m super grateful for everything I have, but when you are younger you don’t think of that stuff, and I was super mad. It was hard to see [my friends] doing all the senior stuff. But as you mature I realized it was no one’s fault and I had to be grateful for the situation I had.”