Creativity: Senior Girls Spirit Group

As senior year approached I decided that I needed to find a way to bring spirit to my grade and to make my final year of high school memorable.  I had seen other spirit groups at surrounding schools so i decided to start my own at Westlake.  I got together all of the girls in my grade and we began to work on a plan to add to the school spirit of the school.  I designed a t shirt and collected money from all of the members. We made baskets for the athletes and attended every game with signs and in our uniforms.  The group created a lively spirit in the senior class and we created memories that will never be forgotten.  Hopefully we started a tradition that will not end any time soon.

Creativity and Service: A Walk With A Pop

Being involved with Project Unify has been one of the most impactful and meaningful experiences of my life.  I thought I had passion for creating social equality before I began to be so involved in the group but quickly realized that i had no idea what passion was before spending time with so many amazing people who were involved in the special needs community.  I had created such a strong relationship with my teacher advisor and her daughter who has Downs Syndrome, Emme.  That's why when I received the news in November of 2014 that she had been diagnosed with Leukemia,  I was devastated.  Being the type of person that I am I couldn't sit by and do nothing so I immediately began to brain storm ways to help and decided that the best way to help and embody her lively personality was to host a color walk that would benefit her Chemotherapy treatment.  I had two weeks to plan the walk and I had so much support from my community.  I worked long hours every day and at times struggled to balance between planning the event and keeping up with the rigorous IB curriculum.  The result made it all so worth it.  500 people showed up to the walk and we were able to raise over $1,200.  I was beyond thrilled and touched by the support that my community had shown for me and Emme.  The event taught me so much about balancing and following through on my passions.  It truly taught me that I am capable of so much more than I had ever thought before.

Service and Creativity: Gallery Night 2014

Once again the Westlake Art Societies gallery night came around and I was asked to participate again by donating my artistic skills to the cause through the contribution of a piece of art in the theme of the James Bond movies.  I had been struggling for a while with my pen and ink skills as far as realistic human figures go. Because of this I decided I would use this opportunity to further develop and improve my skills of drawing human faces using pen and ink.  To add a personal touch to the piece I decided to add my usual style of watercolor, dyes and ink in the background and I ended up with a result that was really unique.  I improved my skills of drawing faces and I worked with my art teacher to come up with ideas and to improve my drawing.

Action: Varsity Volleyball 2014

Being a Senior I was excited and sad about starting my final year of Volleyball with my team mates. There were several seniors on the team and we were determined to win state for the first time. This year we were under new coaching that pushed us to new limits, but we had also lost many valuable assets on the team due to seniors graduating in 2013. The practices were rigorous and daunting but we stuck with it and successfully won our district and moved on to the state tournament just as we had the year before. We gave the first game our all but we were not able to come out victorious and ended the tournament with an emotional victory securing us 3rd place in the state. We were disappointed that we were not able to win the championship as we had hoped but we had also gained so much from the season. By pushing ourselves to new limits we had learned about how to become disciplined and to work hard for what you want to achieve. We had also further developed friendships that will last a long time.

Service and Creativity: Project Unify, Assembly

Another oppurtunity that i was able to lead and be a part of was creating and putting on an assembly for my school that educated my classmates on how important it is to use respectful language, specifically refraining from the use of the deragatory term "retarded".  When my counselor told me that she wanted me to help plan the assembly I was extremely excited but also really nervous that my class mates wouldnt respond well to the message.  We immediatley began planning the assembly and brainstorming ideas for making it the best it could be.  I contacted ambasadors from the special olympics program to speak and asked kids and adults at our school who had family members with special needs to speak also.  As the assembly approached I became more and more nervous that my class mates would mock the message or not be affected by it at all.  On the day of the assembly all of the members of project unify came to school in their "spread the word to end the word" t shirts ready to help make the assembly perfect and to teach their friends and teachers why it was so important to them.  The entire secondary school gathered in the gym and we heard from special olympics athletes, special olympics ambassadors and even students at our school who felt passionatley about the campaign.  By the end of the assembly everyone was silent and some people were even moved to tears.  The principal congratulated my counselor, me and the other students who contributed to leading the assembly on hosting the best assembly he said he had ever seen at our school.  On twitter, facebook and other social networds my class mates raved about the powerful message that Project Unify had spread and how they would be thinking twice before they used the word "retard" again or made fun of someone with intellectual disabilities.  Overall I can say that this assembly was the more proud moment of my life.  All of the hard work we had put into creating it had paid off and we had made a difference at our school.

 all of project unify

 my counselor and me with ambassadors from the special olympics and two athletes

a special olympics athlete speaking at the assembly

Service: Project Unify, Special Olympics Basketball

In the 10th grade for my MYP personal project I designed bracelets with the logo "stop the r word" on them and donated the money i made from selling them to the special olympics organization of Texas.  Because of my best friend's brother, Dan, I have always been very passionate about spreading the word about kids with special needs and fighting for their equality and working towards creating a more respectful community.  Because my school counselor knew that I was passionate abou this she asked me to help her start a club at our school called, Project Unify.  the purpose of the club was to get more people at our school involved in the special needs community and to educate people about different mental handicaps and why not to use the deragatory term "retard

The winning team at the tournament

Through this program I became aware of multiple community service oppurtunities involving kids and adults with special needs.  One of the main oppurtunities was the area Special Olympics.  The first time I worked at a Special Olympics event was keeping score at a basketball game.  The whole experience heightened my passion for the cause and made me even more aware of how important it was that I helped to make my school a more respectful community.  Throughout the day I kept score at several games and interacted with several of the athletes.  I loved getting to talk to them and spend time with them and learn about what they liked to do and what they had to say.  It was a very meaningful experience for me and made me want to volunteer at the special olympics every weekend.

Service and Creativity: Gallery Night Art Auction

Art has always been one of my favority past times, whether it's painting, drawing, or playing music.  Because of this for my IB higher level course I decided to take art.  At our school every year the arts program holds a gallery auction night to raise money for the schools arts program.  This year the theme was Alice in Wonderland.  My art teacher asked me if I wouldnt mind painting a peice to donate to the auction and i was more than glad to contribute.  For the peice I chose to do a mixed media acrylic with the guidance from my art teacher.  Together we created a design that we thought would fit the theme well.  With all of the school work i had going on at the time the painting was more of a challenge then I thought it would be.  I kept trying to figure out the design and the coloring but it never quite looked how I wanted it to and I kept dissapointing myself.  Eventually I got the painting to the perfect place for my taste and I was ready to varnish it and donate it to the auction.

my painting at the auction

The process helped me to develop my shading skills in acrylics and also to paint on irregular surfaces becuase the background of the painting was not flat.  It also helped me to work on my time management skills because I had to balance my school work and normal art work with extra art and sports.  I was proud of my work on this painting and I was glad to people to donate something back to the school. My painting sold at max bid and overall I considered the experience a success in all categories.