Class of 2020 – Senior Photos

Senior Spotlight – Though the end of the school year for the Class of 2020 is a challenge, it certainly does not define these incredible students and their hard work over their last four years in high school. Their future is a bright one, and I am excited to hear what they do with it.

Congratulations to Katie! She is graduating from the Academy for Math, Engineering and Science, and plans to attend the University of Utah.

What was your most listened to song on your morning commute this year?

Dream On by Aerosmith

Which school tradition are you most proud of?

There are some traditions specific to seniors, but I didn’t really get to experience some of them due to the unfortunate events of the coronavirus. One thing I do get to do that my school does every year is something called Senior Presentations. We’re given the task of creating a presentation to present to a group of peers, teachers, parents from the community, as well as some of the school’s board members to show them what AMES has done and meant to us. It means something different to every person and everyone has a unique story to tell. They embrace this by giving seniors the freedom to present however they’d like. We haven’t presented yet, but I’m excited to showcase how important high school was to me and what made it such an amazing time!

What was the most memorable school sporting event of the year?

My robotics team’s regional competition! We’re the largest team at our school and it’s just so much fun! This was my fourth year of being on the team and I was actually in charge of it this year, which was an amazing experience!

If you were in charge of planning a concert for the school, which three artists would you bring?

Panic! At The Disco, The Rolling Stones, and Lizzo

What was the most enjoyable book you had to read for school this year?

I didn’t have to read any books this year, but one of the most memorable books I’ve read throughout my high school life was Macbeth by Shakespeare. We actually acted the book out and had to make a video on it as like a “book report.” These are the reasons why I love that book now!

Who was your favorite teacher throughout all of high school and why?

Mr. Hendricks, the physics, engineering, and robotics teacher has been not only a phenomenal teacher, but also a great mentor and friend. In addition to his professional background, he is extremely dedicated to his teaching. He doesn’t assign busywork and he is always teaching things that are actually applicable to the real world- something most teachers don’t do.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

I see myself graduating from college with some degree in engineering, out of student debt, and with a fantastic job that I love! I hope to be a mentor for my high school robotics team.

What is your best school memory?

One of my all-time favorite memories is when my robotics team made it onto the World Championships. Our 10 year old team had never really received any awards and had definitely never made it to the World Championships, so finally making it was AMAZING! Not only was my entire team so happy to be making history, but we were excited to be competing with these international and world-class teams. I remember hearing our name be called at the competition to advance onto the World Championships and everyone just started jumping up and down, screaming and cheering, and we all just started balling our eyes out! Then when we went to school right after, the entire team was basically famous and everyone kept congratulating us and it was just an amazing feeling! I’ve never felt that proud and happy in that way before.

Name 3 things you would tell your freshman self.

Don’t worry about getting that 4.0! Just get the best grades you can, but don’t kill yourself over them. It really takes a lot of pressure when you don’t have to worry about getting an -A for one quarter in one class. Start figuring out what college you want to go to earlier rather than later…that way you don’t have to work as hard your junior and senior years! It’s important to balance your social and school lives. Make sure you get a good amount of both and that one is too much more dominant than the other.

Describe your senior year in three words.

Busy, crazy, unbelievable

What advice would you give to future seniors?

Start on college stuff no later than the summer before senior year! Once the school year starts you have like a few weeks before a bunch of really important deadlines and it’s really stressful, so don’t do that to yourself. It’s important to have fun! I know a lot of seniors who are basically only taking college classes and have no free time. I bet that’s great, but you’re only in high school once, so enjoy it! College will take up enough of your time, believe me, so make sure you still leave time for normal high school things and have fun!

Congratulations Katie!