“[During senior year], I started caring much more about college. In freshman year, I was lazy and I didn’t pay attention during online school. I played Minecraft a lot during classes. A big lesson for me was that I should have tried harder [at] academics. There’s a bunch of easy [things] that I could have done [to get] into a better college.

I’m interested in astronomy because there’s a chance that we are not alone in the universe. I’m the treasurer of the astronomy club and I’m in the class too. [For the astronomy club], I collect dues, so we have enough money for T-shirts. Mr. Newland is very inspiring to me. My favorite high school memories are the times I spent in physics. The problems were interesting and pretty fun. 

I plan on studying engineering at Texas A&M because I want to be an aerospace engineer. I have always been interested in planes because I lived near an airport when I was little, and I would see them flying overhead. The pilots only get to fly one plane, but aerospace engineers are the ones who do the important stuff. My grandma was another big inspiration to me because she used to be a mechanic for planes and it was interesting to see her work.

If I didn’t major in engineering I would [have] liked to major in music. I have been playing saxophone for a while now and before that, I used to play the piano and the clarinet. I play saxophone now because it is really easy to learn and seems like a cool instrument to play. [Some]  musicians that I look to for inspiration are Charlie Parker and other jazz musicians from the 1950s and 60s. 

The friendships that I made throughout high school did have an impact on me. I learned how to be more open to other people’s thoughts because some of my friends have completely different opinions from each other.”