Q. In what grade are you currently enrolled???

A. I am currently a senior at Emmaus High School.

Q. What is your favorite subject? Why?

A. My favorite subject is calculus because I love learning how concepts I was taught in previous math and physics classes are what they are because of applications of calculus.

Q. Have you received any special awards or recognition?

A. Throughout my four years in high school I’ve received numerous academic awards for my grades and my caliber.

Q. Are you involved in any extracurricular activities?

A. At school, I am an officer for Emmaus’ Interact Club and am a member of National Honor Society. Outside of school, I stay active by playing soccer and I am very involved in a youth ministry leadership team for Faith Church.

Q. What is your next goal after high school?

A. After high school, I’m going to attend the University of Pittsburgh for engineering. I intend on studying civil engineering so when I graduate I can design buildings and structures to help the development of cities and towns. I’ve always known that I’ve wanted to use my knowledge and education to better the lives of others. From that, I plan to hopefully one day be able to take designing structures one step further by designing sustainable and durable buildings for people in underprivileged countries that don’t have homes or have lost them during natural disasters.

Q. What do you consider your biggest challenge to date?

A. I consider my biggest challenge to date to be establishing myself and breaking out of my shell. As a child, I was very shy and kept to myself a lot especially in the classroom. Now being in high school and taking a lot of challenging courses that apply to the engineering and computer science fields, I am surrounded by strong male students throughout the day. I’ve had to learn how to speak up and make myself known in the classroom in order to succeed.

Q. For what would you like to be remembered?

A. I would like to be remembered as someone who could always bring a smile to someone’s face no matter the circumstance. I may have a very serious mindset when it comes to school, but I make it through the day by bringing joy to others’ lives.

Q. Who is in your family?

A. I live with my mother, Dawn, my father, Brian and my basset hound, Isabelle. I also have two older siblings currently in college, Caitlin and Michael.

Q. Whom do you admire? Why?

A. I admire strong female leaders whether they’re an activist, an engineer or someone I know personally. For example, I look up to females from Tracy Kijewski-Correa, a female civil engineer who works on a global scale, to females like my very own mother. Strong, intelligent women inspire me because I hope to be one someone else looks up to one day.

Q. Do you have any advice for your peers?

A. My advice to my peers, whether underclassmen or seniors, is to go through high school with no regrets. Even if you are scared to fail, you learn something from every experience you have. It may sound clichè, but you don’t want to look back on your four years of high school and wish you did something you didn’t do just because you were afraid it wouldn’t turn out how you wanted it to. Sometimes when things don’t turn out the way you plan, they end up being even better than expected.