SNAPSHOTS

Role model: My mom

Favorite childhood show: “Wizards of Waverly Place”

What would be your last meal, if possible: Chicken alfredo

What’s your most used app: TikTok

Where’s your dream vacation spot: Spain

ZOOMING IN

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

A: “I’m going to Stanford University, for public policy. It was my dream school for a while. I love the culture there. Their motto is ‘Stanford students take their academics seriously, but not themselves seriously’ and that describes me perfectly.”

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

A: “I played varsity soccer. I did soccer outside of school as well, and I was captain of both my school team and my outside of school team. I am the president of NHS, I’m vice president of Interact, I do speech and debate and I also do academic UIL for spelling and vocabulary. I’m a part of the Lewisville’s Youth Action Council, and I’m the attorney for the Lewisville Team Court. I’m in JWAC, Mu Alpha Theta, President’s Club and StuCo.”

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

A: “It’s realizing how much time and energy you have to put into everything because I never want to do something I’m not putting my best effort into. When it comes to my academics, I always want to be able to say I tried my hardest even if I didn’t get the result I wanted. I wanted to be able to say I put my all into it. I always felt like I needed to keep up that level of energy and time and that can get very challenging when you have a big schedule. But something I did was making sure I was scheduling it and making sure I was scheduling time for myself to breathe.”

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

A: “Calculus. I think calculus is a hard subject in itself, but Mr. Cormack is such a great teacher, and he gave us a lot of opportunities to succeed. I did have to put in a little extra bit of effort into studying than I normally would’ve. It’s actually very interesting once you get it. I think math is one of those things that is fun if you get it.”

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

A: “The main thing about my whole life in Lewisville is the amount of support I got from everyone. Whether it’s my mom at home making sure I’m eating or if she’s encouraging me to do things even though I feel overwhelmed, to all of my teachers. My middle school teacher who was one of the first people to actually believe in me, Ms. Hardaway, in high school, helped me to launch the High Five Initiative, Mr. Baker and all of my friends. The thing I love about Lewisville is everyone is so supportive and everyone wants me to succeed. I’m so grateful for them.”

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

A: “The friends you make. With playing a sport, the most fun memories of my high school would be my soccer teammates. We definitely had fun every single day. We would have dance parties in the locker room and debrief and talk after games. We would all just have such a positive vibe. I’m such a strong advocate that your life isn’t measured in the amount of awards you get, but the people you touch.”

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

A: “Don’t be afraid to be afraid. There would be times my freshman year where I was scared to be a leader and push myself out of my comfort zone. If you look at me now I’m the president of all of these clubs, but that really wasn’t me for a while and I still grapple with that sometimes. When you’re doing something you truly care about and you’re truly passionate about, it’s OK to push yourself and do things that are slightly uncomfortable if you know that you’re going to make a good impact. Even in my academics I would be scared of failure, but that kind of uncomfortableness of being afraid is what pushed me to be better.”

Q: What are you most excited about regarding college?

A: “I’m so excited to be a tree. I’m so excited to be able to do something and study things I’m genuinely passionate about. I know college is going to give me the tools I want to make that meaningful impact on the world I’ve always wanted to do. I’ve always loved law and policy. I want to be a lawyer, so I’m excited to study all of these things I’m so passionate about, but also to meet people, make new experiences and grow. Something I’m always trying to do is, I’m never satisfied with where I am, I always want to make sure that I’m bettering myself.”

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

A: “When people ask me this I usually can’t tell you career wise, but I just want to be able to say: one that I’m happy and I feel content or happy in what I do and the second thing is I want to make sure I’m making a meaningful and positive impact. In any way, whether it’s a smile in the hallway or that I raised money for charity, I just want to be able to know that I have that role in being a positive influencer. That’s my goal in life, so I hope I do that in ten years.”

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

A: “I’m really grateful to say I don’t have any regrets. I think I did everything I wanted to do, but I’d say being more comfortable with breathing. A lot of the time I was very ‘go, go, go’ and if I took the time to just breathe a little more and know everything is still going to be alright, I probably would’ve gotten out of a lot of stressful [and] overwhelming situations. Everyone has helped me so much and I feel like I don’t have any regrets.”