Artifact: The Director’s Award For Chorus

There is no doubt that I love choir. I talk about it, and sing about it, all the time. So it was no surprise when I won this award at the end of my senior year. The amount of work and dedication that I put into choir definitely qualified me for this award. This award represents how much I love choir, and how much I have achieved as a singer throughout my 6 years. While choir helped me gain a lot of experience and knowledge through working with others and learning about music and other cultures, there is no way for me to express how much choir changed my life. It is nice to have a physical representation of how much high school choir meant to me.

Highlights of Senior Year

New Dimensions included a lot of great memories, from debates to the New York trip, we were always having a good time.

Receiving one of the leads in my school musical, Les Miserables

Prom with my best friend and my favorite dress

Singing with some great friends at graduation, and of course, graduating

  

About Me: Academics

I have said before that I love school, and I really do. I never wanted to have a study hall because I would miss out of class opportunities. My junior year I did happen to have a study hall for the first semester because I decided to take college classes at Kent State University. I took English and Chemistry, and really enjoyed it. I was disappointed when I was unable to fit more college classes into my schedule for my senior year.

My senior year I took a class that changed my life. New Dimensions is a senior only class that requires you to interview to get in. While 90 students interview only 36 got in, and I was fortunate to be one of the 36. In New Dimensions we learned about psychology, philosophy, anthropology, and sociology, while reading a book to go with each unit. There is no doubt that this class changed so many of my opinions and ideas, and helped me open up to the world. As another assignment for the class, I wrote a 47 page paper on teacher salaries. We also took a trip to New York City in the spring which was an amazing experience.

Other classes that I have taken throughout high school are French 1, 2, 3, 4 and AP, AP Calculus,  four years of choir and band, and Peer Collaboration.

About Me: Clubs During High School

I love to be involved. I was in too many clubs to be honest, but I loved it.

Drama Club and the Thespian Society, Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA), Knitting Club, French club and National French Honor Society, Stress-less Club, Tri-M Music Honor Society, National Honor Society, Sled Club, and many more.

Not only did I get involved but I loved to be in charge.

I was Historian of our drama club and Thespian Society junior year, and then Vice President my senior year. I was President of FCA, Secretary of French Club/National French Honor Society and Stress-Less Club all during my senior year. And for choir I was Vice President my junior year, and President and Section Leader my senior year.

 

About me: Hobbies and Passions

There is no doubt that I have always enjoyed school. I never look forward to going back to school, but as soon as I get there I am happy to be back.

Up until senior year (oops) I was a ‘straight A student”… unless you count gym class in middle school. Yes, I got a B in gym. Don’t ask me how I did it, I’m actually quite impressed that I did, because I did participate. I guess gym class just wasn’t the class for me.

But middle school did open me up to my favorite class– choir. Now many people wouldn’t consider choir as a legitimate class, but I would beg to differ. While singing is a big part of choir, (duh), learning about other cultures and countries through their music has helped me grow as a person. As my choir teacher said, “the best way to learn about other cultures in through their music”, and I 100% believe him.

Choir also taught me musical skills that I didn’t learn in band. Playing an instrument (or even two) can teach you a lot, but there is a lot you won’t learn about music until you learn how to sing. And these extra skills have impacted other aspects of my life as well. My dancing improve immensely as I learned how music worked. Being able to feel the rhythm and knowing when to make the right movements so that it fits the music perfectly has made me a stronger dancer.

I have been dancing since I was two years old. Dance is always something that I have loved doing. For me it was never stressful, or a competition, like it is for many girls. To me, dance is when I can let myself go, and really enjoy living. I find it funny that growing up I wanted to be a dancer teacher, and while that dream has since faded, I am going into college pursuing a degree in education and a minor in dance. I wouldn’t mind teaching dance one day, but maybe just as a side job.

Tutoring

Throughout my senior year I spent many Tuesdays at my local library tutoring students for free. The library runs a program for younger kids who need assistance beyond the classroom. I volunteered to be one of the tutors, and I helped many kids, mostly with math, throughout the year. It was a great way for me to learn how to help kids one-on-one, not just in the classroom setting, and allowed me to test my patience and teaching skills.

Peer Collaboration

During my senior year I enrolled in a class called Peer Collaboration in place of a study hall. This class allowed me to choose a teacher, and then be part of that teacher’s classroom for a period of the day, helping the teachers and students. I choose a special needs resource class that taught physical science. The kids that I worked with were higher functioning special needs, ages fourteen to seventeen. Throughout the year I helped set up labs and work with lab groups so that each student would understand and gain experience from the lab. I would help the teacher create and post homework assignments to the online Google Classroom. I would help students with concepts they didn’t understand, as well as grade tests and provide feedback, so the students would fix their mistakes. The kids made me laugh everyday, and I loved watching them grow throughout the year.

Internship at Bettes Elementary School

During my junior year in high school I spent a few days working along side my Aunt, who is a teachers at Bettes Elementary School. When I arrived in the mornings I would make sure everything was ready for the day ahead and then greet the kids as they came into the school. I spent time in a first grade class, a preschool class, and a kindergarten class. After my second day I was extremely surprise about how each class was more or less mature depending on their ages– a difference you don’t really see within the high school. Talking to the teachers I worked with during lunch made me see that maybe after receiving my degree in education, I would like to pursue a masters in Occupational Therapy so that I can work with students who need extra help. It was a great experience, and helped me realize that education is the field I want to enter.

G.O.A.L.S. (Service)

My goal in life (pun intended) is to help people. There is no doubt that service is very important to me. With my teaching major, I hope to not only help kids, but end kids in other countries, and help kids who don’t receive the proper education. It is my hope that I can affect many kids lives so that they can in turn help others.