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Olivia Rohde

Mrs. Scharff

ERWC

12 March 2023

Reflection of High School Prompt 2

My high school experience has been a wild ride. From digital learning through the

quarantine, to managing challenging classes, my experiences have affected my plans for the

future. Clubs have also had a massive impact on my life ranging from helping me find my

interests to helping me develop skills that school does not exactly teach.

College

Throughout high school, I always had a good idea of what school I was able to go to. I

am a straight A student who has had over a 4.0 GPA since I started taking AP classes [Picture A].

But this ended up not being utilized to the fullest. I come from a lower middle class family and

all I could get into, no matter what, was community college. Although there were several

scholarship opportunities, I always ended up hearing about them too late or not having time to

fill them out. This was one of my biggest regrets in high school, which is not that bad.

Great Oak has provided its students with the college career kick off day which ended up

helping me a lot. I signed up and went to several of the presentations from the community

colleges in the area and they taught us about the programs the schools offer to Great Oak

graduates and first-year college students in general. MSJC and Palomar Community College

came to Great Oak and I learned that both schools have pathways for financial aid that I can go

for which helps me greatly. One of the presentations I went to actually helped us apply to MSJC
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and that is the college I hope to go to because it is close to where I live and it has several classes

that I need for the career path that I want

Career Plan

I have always known that I want to go into some sort of STEM field for my career. In

middle school I was obsessed with astronomy and robotics, where I hadn’t experienced or

learned much of anything in-depth about other fields in science. When I got to high school, I

took all types of advanced science classes which helped me explore my interests. Among them, I

took several computer science classes. Learning more about computer science helped give me

skills I can use in robotics.

My most dedicated-to extra curricular also allowed me to explore even more different

types of science and skills. Science Olympiad has allowed me to explore more into things I

already had interests in like astronomy [Picture 2]. This club has enabled me to learn a lot about

astrophysics and apply the concepts to word problems and connect the complicated math that I

am learning in class to practical applications. This club also introduced me to another field I

really find interesting: geology and mineralogy. I took all of these interests into account and I

now have several back up plans for my future in case I do not like my current path. When I

enroll in college, I will be majoring in mechanical engineering and minoring in computer science

to continue building my skill set towards fields in robotics.

Life Goals

Before I got to high school, I did not care for the smaller things in life, I was naive and

wanted to do something with my life that would advance humanity. Throughout high school, I

have learned that this goal is extremely difficult. I have also learned to appreciate everything that

comes my way. I have also found out that burn-out exists the hard way and how to overcome it
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bit by bit. High school has helped me make strong bonds with my friends and showed me to

explore and keep finding things that I like [Picture 3]. In the future I want a job that allows me to

keep researching the subjects I am passionate about while also enabling me to keep creating,

whether it is robots, computer programs, stories, or art through work or through hobbies and free

time.
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Picture A

My high school transcript as of 3/12/23

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Picture B

My partner and I winning 1st place in astronomy at Science Olympiad regionals 3/11/23

Picture 3

A picture of my friends and me on my birthday