School: Duke Ellington School of the Arts

Grade: 10

Zodiac Sign: Cancer

Interests/Activities:

I like to do a lot of things in my spare time. I love drawing, especially since I go to an arts school. My favorite way to draw is digitally, because I don’t have a lot of colors on hand, and plus you can do so many cool effects on digital that you can’t do traditionally! I also play violin! I’ve been playing since 4th grade and I even played in my middle school orchestra for all 3 years of middle school. I like playing all kinds of songs but especially ones that challenge me. I’m really competitive naturally, so I enjoy a challenge. I love shopping, especially for clothes online. I think fashion is a really great way to express yourself and to help you love yourself. It makes me happy to wear clothes that I think I look cute! I like to draw the outfits I’m wearing if I really like them and maybe add little touches too. Not to mention sometimes I even design clothes that’d be absolutely impossible to make, so I think I’m pretty into fashion as well!

Academic/Career Interests:

I want to be a translator and live in Japan. I don’t know what kind of translation work I want to do yet, but I find translating things fun. I’ve been studying Japanese since 7th grade, so I’d ideally like to study in a Japanese college to get as much experience as possible. I’ve always had the goal, since starting my Japanese language education, to take and pass the JLPT N2 or hopefully N1. Japan has really captivated me and I want to do something with my passion. Not to mention I love languages in general, so I would also like to expand my interests into other languages as well! I’m currently learning Korean, French, and Russian, so I’d love to study them more in the future. I also plan on making art and selling it for profit due to the high trend in digital art these days! Not to mention I really like making art and I’d like to sell it to people so they can enjoy it too.

Personal Statement:

I’m really passionate and hardworking when it comes to the things I care about. I generally am a shy person by nature and I find it hard to make friends. I’ve always been hooked on certain things, from books to movies, to tv shows! I love the feeling of being dedicated to something and relating to it. Using these things to connect to people is great, but I dream to be able to just naturally connect with people. I love being around people and talking with them. There are so many people with so many different personalities and I want to meet them!

All throughout my life different languages have always been sprinkled throughout my life. I grew up with Spanish, and French, but not necessarily in my household. It was in second grade when I took my first language class and learned French. I’ve mostly forgotten anything I’ve learned other than the word for fish but I still hold the language close. Learning new things is what keeps me going. I’m endlessly curious and I want to know everything about everything. So when I started taking more and more language in and in, things like Russian or Spanish, I was overjoyed. Who knew there were so many languages?

I’d spend hours on the computer trying to teach myself the language, but as expected, online doesn’t do much. It was in 6th grade when I found Japanese. Of course I’d heard it before, and Japanese culture was lightly sprinkled throughout my life in small ways. It never took me until then. It was so beautiful, just hearing it. I wanted to know more. So I hit the ground running and searched through hundreds of sites in 7th grade to find the site that would teach me. I eventually found a site I deemed satisfactory and I taught myself Hiragana before later giving up due to the sheer mass of lessons and worksheets I’d printed out.

I didn’t let myself waver there and pressed on occasionally taking time to study the language. But then my mom found an online program that would let me learn Japanese without having to self-study. I jumped at the chance and threw myself into studying. I learned so much I couldn’t believe it. So I was so happy to hear they had a Japanese class program. Finally! People to talk to. I’d been practicing on my own and with my teacher I was worried I wasn’t making enough progress. I’m still naturally shy but I will push myself to be more open and friendly. This is going to help me change for the better and become more outgoing! So finding this program was a really good thing and I promise I’ll work hard and do my best! Thank you for the opportunity!