Honor Roll

I didn’t know it at the time, but I believe because of my experience that set the foundation for the student that I am today. My brother started Kindergarten and my mother would drop me off at the babysitter so she could go to school. My first “academic memory” is remembering my mother sitting at the table saying she had homework, my brother not wanting to be bothered because he had homework. So when my mom didn’t have school and my brother had school together WE did homework. That became our time together, she didn’t send me to school, she created school at the kitchen table. She had books, worksheets, cards, and my own folder. My mother loves to remind me how I use to tell everyone that I didn’t go to preschool. Fast Forward five years, my friends were getting grounded for their grades and asking me why I never got in trouble for mine. My friends and I spoke with my mom and her reply was, “I believe if you do your best, try your hardest, and do everything you can to be the best you can- I don’t believe in punishing Bethany. Now, If Bethany didn’t try her best, try her hardest, do everything she could to get the best grades she can then we will look at why.” My friend looked at me and said “Oh, you're lucky! I wish I had your mom!” I never shared that all my grades were A’s, because I did my best, I tried my hardest and I did everything I could to get the best grades I could and I still do. If I need to study for 3 hours, If I need to seek out a teacher, plan a study group with friends or students who can help, I’ll do what I need to do. I appreciate the academic recognitions as they continue to motivate me. I am not afraid of hard work and I believe this will benefit the National Honor

My moms raised me with a strong set of morals, including “hard work pays off.” Sometimes this can be discouraging when you work hard, but it doesn’t pay off as you’d like it to. I’ve always gotten the grades I strive for without much struggle. However, once high school started, everything changed. I’d work for weeks on a scholarship essay, and I wouldn’t even place. I’d work for months to get something published and then read other people’s names in the congratulations announcement. I’d constantly wonder: Who’s at the top of the class? Who’s going to win the end of year awards? When you consistently get the grades that I do, people just expect those grades. No one congratulates you on your hard work anymore, and you don’t always get recognized. Despite the lack of recognition, I still take pride in my grades, and continue to work hard. Getting great grades is something I know I can do, even when it’s difficult to do. The difficulty makes it even more satisfying when I see the hard work pay off, and I get the grade I wanted. I’ve encountered

Growing up, I’d always been expected to do well in school. Which isn’t out of the ordinary, every parent wants their child to be successful and have a beneficial career. So, since good grades were what my parents expected that’s what I got. All throughout elementary, I strived to do my absolute best in every subject. At my sixth grade graduation I was awarded the Presidential Award for Academic Achievement, in my junior high years I did well as well. My eighth-grade year I achieved my goal of obtaining a 4.0 G.p.a. The first year of high school was nerve-racking but I still managed to keep my grades up. However, Sophomore year was definitely a bump in the road for me. In all my ten years of being in school (including head start and kindergarten)

From my days as a little kindergartener till now, I have always taken school very seriously and worked hard to be an honor roll student. I have never missed a day of school in my entire life and I have never failed to turn in an assignment. I have always been determined to be the best in my class and never give up. What drives me to work hard, are the lessons my parents have instilled in my mind at an early age. Since I was little, my parents have preached the importance of school and working hard for my future. Their lessons have taught me profoundly and I can’t thank them enough.

About four years ago, I was just starting my first year of high school. During my previous tenure in middle school, I was basically an average student with multiple C’s and barely passing classes. So when I entered high school, I was not that enthusiastic about it and I continued the trend of not really caring about my grades in the 9th grade. As I became more aware of the opportunities I could get by receiving good grades, I began to actually care more about school and tried to get good grades. I began to do something that I never did before,

By the time I got to about fifth grade, everyone started to notice how academically gifted I really was. In fourth and fifth grade, I even joined the spell bowl team. Me and a few other people I knew well were about two grade levels ahead of the rest of our class, mathematically speaking. Then, I got to middle school. It was a big change, lockers, stairs, a very large school it was. It was all very unknown to me, there were really tall kids, and they all had their friends, I had to adjust. By this time, I was still on the gifted academic path, being in Algebra in only seventh grade, a class that is supposed to be for freshmen. My family were always very proud of me because of this, and I had always tried to be smarter than my sister, who was always four grades and a step ahead of me. She was always the teacher's pet, overachiever type of student. School had never really been hard for me, just boring and mentally draining. By the time I was in eighth grade, I had found my true group of friends. There was a few that liked soccer, which fit me really

When I was 5 my life changed completely. My sister and I were abandoned by our mother and father. I was then raised by my aunt and uncle along with my grandparents. I was taken in and loved as if I was their own. I want to show them and myself that no matter what happens in life that I can succeed and accomplish anything I set my mind to. Therefore, I am pursuing an Associates degree and the first generation in my family to go to college first generation in my family to go to college.

As an adolescent I had many birth issues and illnesses including asthma. These issues had kept me out of school, giving me less time to learn the basics of reading, writing, and math. Because my mother coached varsity volleyball at Novi High School, most of my childhood was spent in the gym. My father did not always have the best grades, in fact high school was the same for both of us; however, as he continued to college he had increased his study habits and earned himself over a 3.0 GPA. My two sisters are both really school smart, and then there was me, the one who struggled with school. In my Junior year my father got sick and I was on constant worry about my family and how he was doing. School became harder for me to focus on because of this issue and none of my teachers helped me out with the number of assignments. Family was always first with us, then it was education and school, and continued off with friends and fun such as sports.

In 7th grade I was unfocused, unprepared, and childish. I didn’t know my grades would have an impact on my high school career. I thought everything that happened in middle school stayed in middle school so I focused on useless drama. I used to blame my C’s on bad teaching but now I realize I have no one else to blame but myself. I was the one coming to school unprepared to work not my teachers. Now I know all of my grades count. I have blossomed into a person I am proud of. This year I’ve made it my mission to actually pass not just get by. I now sit promptly in the front of the class and take notes. I focus on test scores and grades not drama that’s not even going to matter next week. I now know what’s important and what I should just leave

I didn’t quite grow up like everyone else. I was homeschooled, from the beginning all the way until graduation. A former elementary school teacher, my mother didn’t trust the public schools. I always performed well, although I didn’t have many people to compare myself to, and, graduation was at 15 (I was eager to get out). I couldn’t immediately go to any college I wanted because I had to stay close to home. I chose Georgia Tech, an engineering school, after it was (strongly) suggested to me.

My brother was learning English and trying to catch up in class and my sister was working through a speech impediment which affected school. I felt the need to be a good role model for them and to take the pressure off my parents by trying hard in my studies while also exploring what a bigger school had to offer. I joined student council, made honor roll and in 8th grade helped create a sustainability club. This work made me feel self assured and I began to realize that I wanted to continue working hard, not only for Manuel and Chloe, but also for myself. I liked the feeling of accomplishment I got from completing a goal I set for myself. This confidence made me more of an out-going and driven individual, characteristics that aided me in my endeavors in High School and helped my parents guide my

Ever Since I was in first grade, my parents always expected me to stay at the top of the class. In order to do that, my parents got me a private teacher. I went to school an hour earlier than any other student and stayed after school an hour to review my classes. Until the weekend, I rarely had time for sports and entertainment. I did not appreciate what I was doing, but was all the sacrifice and hard work worth it? I did not realize that until my grades were shown on my report cards and how much knowledge I had more than any other students. My parents, as well as my teachers were proud of me. Sacrificing my playtime, consistently studying hard, and developing my skills also helped open up a lot of opportunities such as getting scholarships.

From then on, my homeboys and I had in our heads that we had to work hard to get what we want, whether it be receiving a reward for honor roll, being recognized by others for events, or just having the ability to know that we can go to the next level at something in life . This message has never gone out of my head since that day. My main focus, goals and priorities have just changed, though slightly over time. It used to be the biggest race, now it's getting into college to further my future, and later it will be landing a stable job in my field of work. There are a lot of different types of success, though; success doesn't always have to lead to a good, well-paying jobs, it goes way beyond that in many ways. Growing up around a very successful family and also friend its kind of hard to fall out of line because you want to keep up the good work most of all at the end of the day you don’t want to fail and be a disappointment. Achievement and success can bring a lot of stress and pressure and can also make people do stuff they do want to do under certain measures. Success and achievement do not come easy by any means it all takes patience and dedication, but at the end of the day hard work gets you there self motivation

Throughout my educational experience, I have endured countless hardships that made progress difficult at times. Although it was a struggle through my strong dedication to education, I have also earned a list of achievements for my hard work. These experiences from, failing two of my English classes, to excelling tremendously in mathematics, have molded me into the type of student I am today. I am a student with a growth mindset and, an optimistic outlook on education and, the bright future ahead. I now understand the impact that a positive mindset can have on your future. I am definitely proud of the student I have become. I feel like my journey is unique, but is also very relatable.

Starting from my first days of life, my parents did everything to please me; additionally, they always tried to do their best to develop my literacy skills and help me to become smarter. I always loved learning and each time when they made up some game or a new interaction, it was great fun to play. I had no idea that learning could be challenging because each task that they offered was easy to accomplish and absolutely doable for me. I grew up knowing that there was no process more exciting than learning. Besides, at the back of my mind, I was convinced that every new thing I learned was changing me for better. When I became a schoolboy, my parents were pleased whenever my grades were excellent. I wanted them to feel pleased and happy all the time. At the beginning, I strived to get an A to deserve some reward; for instance, getting some ice cream seemed to be a sufficient motivation for me to learn a long text or do loads of assignments. However, later on, I started getting delighted just because when I managed to learn something new, my knowledge made me