It’s hard to believe, but this week marked the official end of my senior year Independent Study and Mentorship journey. From my decidedly rough first few phone calls contacting local pediatricians for research interviews, to the excitement I felt after reading Dr. Gerlacher’s email where he agreed to be my mentor, and to the stressful yet infinitely rewarding experiences of Research Showcase and Final Presentation Night, this year in ISM has shaped my personal and professional individualism in ways that surpassed anything I could have imagined. On Friday night, crowds gathered through Liberty High School to support ISM as each student presented their own final products and research under their mentors over this year. After the showcase portion in the gymnasium and the mentor recognition in the auditorium, it was time for the individual presentations in the classrooms. This was my opportunity to expand on the processes I went through to create my original work and final product, and I loved getting to share the details of my work under Dr. Gerlacher with my friends and family members. The feeling at the end of the night when my presentation was over and my volunteers were helping me clean up the room was bittersweet, as I was sad that the year of ISM had come to a close, but also so glad that the end of my hard work here at Liberty these past four years had ended on such a high note. With two short weeks left before we walk the stage and begin the next chapters of our lives, I can’t help but feel blessed that I have been surrounded with supportive and selfless individuals who have helped me through my four years of high school and been introduced to programs, like DECA, Youth and Government, and of course, ISM, that have provided me with invaluable opportunities to grow as an individual and future college student. Here’s to a great year in ISM and a memorable high school journey, and to an exciting next four years in sunny San Francisco!
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The most exciting week of the year in ISM is finally here! On the night of Friday, May 19th, Liberty HS ISM will host its annual Final Presentation Night here on campus. At 6:00 pm, all students will be presenting our works in the same set-up style as we had back in January at Research Showcase. After an hour of the booth presentations, everyone will migrate from the gymnasium into the auditorium, where each of the ISM students this year will go up to the front of the stage to give a personal thank-you to their mentors and hand them their official 2017-2018 Mentorship plaques. Following this formal tradition, the individual presentations in separate classrooms throughout the school building will begin. A few weeks ago, each ISM student picked a room to call their own for the night, and I was so lucky to get the first room in the closest hallway to the front of the building! My volunteers will help me set my room up while we are presenting in the auditorium, so I can make my way to my room and start my individual presentation at 8 o’clock sharp. It is hard to believe that the year’s hard work is finally coming together and will be presented as whole at the end of this week, but I am very excited to share my work under Dr. Gerlacher with my friends and family. Something else to look forward to is the Liberty HS Senior Lock-In at Six Flags, beginning at 10 pm after FPN and going all the way until 6:00 the next morning! Besides the excitement that Friday will bring, I will also be attending senior reunions for Borchardt Elementary School and Fowler Middle School, my fourth and last tennis banquet, and the annual Frisco ISD Top Ten Luncheon, where I will be honoring my tennis coach of seven years, Coach Dopson. This week will be a whirlwind of bittersweet reunions and exciting celebrations of the end of my senior year, and I am looking forward to it!
I am currently writing this from the Orange County Airport on a Sunday, waiting for my flight back to Dallas to conclude my trip, and in sunny southern California that had started on Wednesday. DECA ICDC in Anaheim has been an unforgettable experience filled with friends, competition, and Disney! My partner, Shivani, and I went through competition briefing and testing before entering into our competitive event on Friday. We put together our brainpower and completed the roleplay to the best of our ability. This year in DECA has taught me invaluable information within my competitive cluster, hospitality and tourism, and has made me a more professional individual. I could not be more grateful for the connections, knowledge, and memories that my three years in DECA have provided me with. In other news, AP exam weeks are right around the corner, and I will have to kick my studying into gear when I get back home. Following AP week will be Final Presentation Night, the culmination of my year in ISM. With all these big events coming and going, one of the most exciting has been my recent commitment to attend the University of California, Berkeley for the next four years!!! I am beyond excited to become a golden bear and live and learn in California. Before we know it, we will be heading off to college and paving the paths for our futures. I can't think of a better place for me to embark on this journey than Cal, and I am so honored to be able to call myself a member of the Berkeley Class of 2021! Last Thursday, I packed my suitcase and boarded a flight with my mom from Dallas to San Francisco. The excitement of getting to explore the city and tour the campus of UC Berkeley kept building until we finally landed late Thursday night at SFO and bought BART tickets to Union Square, where our hotel was located. On Friday morning, we woke up to a curiously quiet city. It just so happened that on our first day in the city, parts of the city of San Francisco experienced a power outage for the first time in years that resulted in almost all the shops and restaurants to close for the day. It was such a weird experience walking down the streets of the financial district and seeing businessmen and women making small talk outside the closed office buildings. Thankfully, other parts of the city near the bay still had power. I was able to meet with my friend Alyssa, who I had met this past June at an economics conference in Austin. She made the drive down from Sonoma to San Francisco after I told her I would be in town, and we spent the afternoon walking from the Ferry Building up to Pier 39 and Fisherman’s Wharf. I absolutely loved getting to see her after almost a year, and it made me reflect on how amazing it is that such a brief three-day conference over the summer can create such a strong bond of friendship. The next morning, the power was finally back on, and my mom and I took the BART up to Downtown Berkeley for the annual Cal Day event, which is basically an open house for UC Berkeley. The campus was breathtaking, with redwood trees lining the outskirts and intricately designed buildings surrounding the iconic Campanile Tower in the center. After walking through Sproul Plaza and touring the Haas School of Business, I was able to meet up with a family friend from Plano, now a junior at Berkeley, to talk about her experiences and life in California. Cal Day was a one-of-a-kind experience that really gave me a sense of the campus vibe. On Sunday, we made the trip back to Berkeley once more because I had planned to meet up with other prospective students and current Cal students who had graduated from Liberty. I found that I had a lot in common with the other freshman admits, and I even found out that a prospective student from New Jersey would also be at DECA Internationals in Anaheim later this week! For lunch, I met with Shreyash, a former ISM student at Liberty who is in his first year at Cal. We talked about campus life and the pre-business track at Berkeley, and I loved getting to hear about his college experiences so far. Later that afternoon, I met with Jack, a former Liberty student who went to TAMS before coming to Cal. Jack took me on a hike up to the Big C, a spot on the edge of campus with a view so amazing that no pictures can do it justice. UC Berkeley boasts one of the most picturesque campuses in the nation, and seeing Cal from the Big C made that clear to me. As I talked with Jack, he explained to me the reality of studying at a school like Berkeley. He helped me sort through the pros and cons of pursuing business at UT in BHP versus on the pre-Haas track at Berkeley, and his insight really pinpoint my ultimate college decision, which I will finalize this week. I just landed back in Dallas last night at midnight, and tomorrow morning I will be back at the airport to catch a flight to Anaheim with other ICDC qualifiers for the DECA International conference. So many exciting opportunities have been presenting themselves in my life, and I cannot wait to make the most of every experience!
This past week has been filled with firsts, lasts, and exciting memories that I will remember for years to come. On Monday, Junior Frisco Women's League had its highly-anticipated annual Halloween Party. The group of girls in my tribe decided to embrace the "Zootopia" theme and dress as tigers and zookeepers. The Halloween Party was filled with good food, great friendship, and memorable laughs. On Tuesday, I had my first college interview experience. The week before, I had gotten an email from a UT Austin Business Honors Program Alumni about scheduling a phone interview. At 5 pm, I was sitting in front of my laptop, awaiting the call nervously. The interview got pushed back an hour, and at 6 pm, I finally picked up the phone and began speaking to the interviewer. After a brief and friendly conversation with the alumni, I came out of the call feeling confident that I presented myself to the best of my ability. A bittersweet last experience I had this week was my last tennis tournament of fall season in high school. After four years of fall tennis on the Liberty High School tennis team, this last regional match made me reflect on how far I have come since that first day of varsity practice as a freshman. With this week being such a whirlwind, I spent my time in ISM class touching up my website and writing research assessments to learn more about the field of pediatrics. The first semester of senior year is officially halfway over, and time is flying by, I can't wait to see what the rest of my journey through ISM and my last year of high school will bring! |
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