BLOGS
#1
This summer, I did a lot of hiking in the LA, Orange, and Ventura counties. In many spots, there were really cool (and slightly dangerous) rock climbing opportunities, which I definitely took advantage of. When I wasn't spending my time outdoors, I gained a new sense of what it means to be at peace. As cheesy as that sounds, going from pre-quarantine life (surrounded by people all day, overloaded with responsibilities and work, and having no time to sit back and relax) to immediate lockdown really helped me find what makes me happy. For me, being around people 24/7 is exhausting, and having that break from society really helped me realize that I didn't need to depend on others to make me happy. In other news, I moved houses twice (once at my mom's, the other at my dad's), which was very exciting. Now that I have lived in 13 different homes, moving frequently is fun for me. One last important part of my summer was starting to make music through a producing app called Ableton, which is now one of my favorite things to do.
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This year in class, I am very excited to start making projects together. As a whole, I believe that we can do great things, especially with the great leadership we have between us all. I really like the thought of sharing leadership roles with our co's, which will more accurately represent everyone in our class and will help ensure that everyone's voice can be heard. Of course, spending my last year in high school with some of my closest friends is amazing, and I am so happy that we've all been together for this long. I couldn't imagine a better group to work with.
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This year in general is both exciting and terrifying; spending my last year at Samo in classes with some of my closest friends, yet not being able to see anyone in person for a long time. My classes aren't too difficult yet (and I hope it stays that way), and hopefully, even under these weird circumstances, I can make some new friends. In the end, I am looking forward to returning to school before my senior year is over and being able to see my friends before we leave for college.
#2
Overall, my capstone project is going pretty well. At first I was in a group of five people, but we were passionate about different topics within pollution so we decided it was best for us to split into groups of two and three. In the end, it worked out for me because I'm paired up with one of my best friends! So far, we are working on a potential project revolving around smoke from chimneys, which is interesting to research (considering that most air pollution that's being covered in articles and media is from the wildfires).
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In the coming weeks, I predict that we will have difficulties with finding extensive research on smoke pollution, specifically from chimneys. Since the wildfires are the biggest topics being covered in the realm of air pollution, finding recent articles on chimney smoke may be challenging. I also think that we might have some trouble coming up with a cost-effective solution that hasn't already been invented, but I believe that in the end we can get through it and think of something.
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As for college, I am working on applying early admission to the University of Michigan, although if I don't think that my application is at its best by the due date, I'm not opposed to applying at the regular time. Some of the other colleges that I am definitely applying to include Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, Northwestern, George Washington, Syracuse, University of Wisconsin, and University of Indiana Bloomington. That definitely isn't my final list though - I also am looking into University of Texas Austin, Boston University, and I need to look into more safeties (seeing as I have very little). I am starting my common app and my "Why Michigan" essay, and I need to ask the rest of my teachers for letters of recommendation (if they aren't already full). I wish someone had told me to do all of my research during the summer, seeing as researching plus schoolwork can be exhausting.
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With college essays and applications stacking up, I've found myself buried under piles of both college and schoolwork. Whenever I decide to focus on schoolwork, I continue putting myself behind in the college application process. Conversely, on the days where I focus on admissions essays, I get further behind in schoolwork and have to dedicate weekend time towards catching up in classes.
#3
#4
Overall, the college application process is extremely overwhelming, and I wish that I had started the essay writing and brainstorming process over the summer, or at least by early fall. Although, if we weren't in online school, I would have much less time to work on my applications (especially considering basketball practice), so it definitely isn't the worst it could've been.
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I strongly suggest that everyone researches their colleges over the summer and should try to have a solid list by the time school starts, so that way all of the research is out of the way and you can have much more time to focus on essay writing at a leisurely pace. In addition, if you're unsure about what major or subject you're interested in, I suggest you should look into different programs within the schools that you like and figure out if any field interests you.
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I am excited to move to a different state and experience what it's like to live outside of California, as well as make new friends at my future school. Even though I definitely have a couple top choices, I'd be excited to attend any school on my list (yes, all 17 of them)!
#5
Products that are made for profit are made specifically to benefit the financial status of the owners/creators, while products that are made to benefit others are made with the pure intention of improving the livelihoods of others. Although there may be profit off of those products, its intention and purpose isn't just only making money.
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Products that are made for profit are created and sold with the specific goal of making money, not for catering to the customer's needs. Apple, in particular, has purposefully changed its charging ports and headphone jacks in order to force customers to buy new chargers and headphones. Clearly, that is not in favor of the customers, but because of this strategy, Apple's profit margin is huge.
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Products that are made to help others tend to make their customers more lenient when it comes to the price. A survey showed that 60% of Canadian shoppers were willing to pay an extra 5% more for products and services that were considered ethical. Additionally, non-profits like World Wildlife Fund and Greenpeace can successfully receive donations that cover the cost of their work in full, all because of their marketing strategy that touches people's hearts.
#6
Our biggest challenge that we've faced so far is figuring out how to safely add the filters and fan into the chimney system. Since the metal that makes up the firebox and chimney gets extremely hot when the fire is going, we're struggling to figure out a solution that ensures that nothing else catches on fire and that the filters and fan will work under the extreme heat. Overall, I'm proud of our whole design process and how we went through a lot of different designs before discovering our current one. This shows that we did a good job so far of problem solving and coming up with alternative ideas.
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I would tell future seniors to definitely stick to a project and theme that you actually enjoy learning about. Alana and I first started with a group of 5 but we couldn't agree on a project, so we just split off and made our own group of 2. Even though we have to do more work than the rest of the class, I'm still much happier pursuing an idea that I'm actually interested in rather than settling for another.