Sophomore

Welcome, incoming sophomores, to the Illinois Math and Science Academy. This place will hopefully not only be your school, but also your home for the next three years. IMSA is going to offer you a level of freedom you may never have experienced before. However, it is still a high school, and has its restrictions. We may be some of the best students in the entire state of Illinois, but we are still teenagers. You are about to have this drilled into your minds. For the next week, and I speak from…

Growing up, I never understood why my parents pushed me so hard in school. When I failed my parents made sure, consequently, I was to come back twice as vigorous and diligent than before. Being the first that is going to walk across the graduation stage after three generations of late graduates, and my mother becoming pregnant at the age of seventeen helped me mature into a young adult. When I was younger, I presumed my parents were strenuous on me. I started having a pessimistic attitude…

Growing up, I definitely had a warped view on Greek Life. I presumed being in a sorority would be how the media portrayed it – crazy, dramatic, and dangerous. However, coming to Babson, I saw a different story. I observed a community of strong women supporting each other through encouragement and shared purposes. Every sorority woman I met my first semester of freshman year raved about their experiences and passion for their sisterhood. When I ended my first semester, I decided that I would be…

I am going to try my hardest to convince you otherwise. The truth is, I have been offered a full ride scholarship to a university that even has a decent program for graphic design—but I do not want to attend their school. You see, when I was a sophomore I had the opportunity to visit Liberty University at their College for a Weekend event. I instantly fell in love with everything about…

My heart drops when I look at this essay, knowing my undergraduate academic performance was average at best yet I excelled academically during my postbaccalaureate program. I try my best to give details surrounding my fluctuating academics at Springfield College. In high school, I enrolled in two semesters of AP Spanish senior year and earned a C in both semesters. Freshman year of college my course load was more ambitious than I found myself able to handle. Attempting to balance 18 credits…

school as a freshman; however, that was not the case as a sophomore. As a sophomore, I ran the mile in seven minutes, but another sophomore, George, would run it in six minutes and fifty seconds. I wondered why he was so fast, so I asked him. He told me that he was in track and field and that I should join because he believed I had potential. George is the reason I started my track and field journey. When entering track and field into my sophomore year, I went in as a…

I played sophomore baseball for Senior over the summer. It was the best season I've ever had as a Dubuque Senior High School baseball player. I was the pitcher on the team, also known as the "Ace". Before the last couple of games we had an anonymous team vote on which award people should get. At the end of the season we had a potluck with the varsity team and the sophomore team. Everyone showed up with haircuts and their parents. When I got there I just saw everyone in a circle talking to each…

All of us have had a teacher who has made a profound difference in our lives. The person in my life that has significantly influenced me is my advocacy teacher and his name is Mr. Stauffer. Ever since my sophomore year in high school I have known him. He became my role model since my sophomore year in high school. From that year and on he basically became the person I looked up to and I saw him not only a teacher but a mentor as well. He made me have a serious mature mentality when I became Mr.…

increase the variety of foreign language electives in Yorkville High School. To achieve this, the team surveyed roughly one-hundred sophomores, juniors, and seniors to determine whether or not they would like French to be a foreign language elective…

The first speaker was Katelyn Poelker from St. Louis University. The title of her study was Adolescent Gratitude and Envy: Insights from the U.S. and Guatemala. Her study took repeated ideas and notions and coded them into common or similar themes. An example of this being that envy within the United States reflects a more material nature and privatized. Within her main study she took a sample of 25 youth in the United States and the 22 in Guatemala. She found that a correlation between high…