Academics:
Priory was a heavily college-focused school, but I took as much leeway as I could in order to explore the arts while in high school. I also took every psychology class they had to offer, as that was my initial academic inclination before coming to university. Probability and statistics were my focus rather than the traditional calculus path, which in hindsight was both helpful and detrimental.
As Priory was a Benedictine Catholic school, we also had required theology classes, which ended up being my first foray into philosophy and ethics. As a non-religious person myself, I gravitated towards classes that held discussions about the wider nature of reality, preferring a wider scope than the bible provided. I think that these philosophical foundations really influenced me coming into college, and I’m grateful for my theology teachers for that!
While at Priory learned from some incredible professors, such as John Sugden in the performing arts, Richard Paige for computer science, Damien Cohen and David Neale for history, James Hatzopoulos for english, and Shawn Matson for visual arts, to name just a few. Matthew McWright and the three monks who lived on campus showed me the way being positive and having a healthy mind, for which I will always be grateful.
In the fall of my Senior year, I was accepted as an Early Decision applicant to Northeastern University, and the rest is history!
Extracurriculars:
My biggest commitment while in high school was performing arts. Woodside Priory was a very artistic school, and the theater department was no slouch. In both musicals and plays, from Shakespeare to Broadway, I rehearsed, sang, learned lines, and performed on stage for the members of the community. Acting is something that I attribute many of my major strengths to - I learned speech tactics and improved my verbal skills, honed my memory, and lost any fear of speaking to groups or being a leader, whether on the stage or off it.
I was also the scouting head on Priory’s student-led FIRST Robotics team, working primarily on data and logistics. We competed annually in competitions with powerhouse teams such as Nueva, and had a blast geeking out about programming, learning to weld, carefully managing our snack supplies, and arguing about who had bad taste in lab music.
Tennis has always been the sport that I’ve taken to the most readily (since I was a toddler!), and I joined the tennis team with verve and vigor, rising to the first singles seed in my freshman year. That’s not necessarily a boast as to my skill level, though, as we were pretty terrible. Still, it was a great way to stay active and work on a favorite sport of mine.