Track and Field:
When I arrived at FDR, I had a very difficult time adjusting to the changes in the environment. My dream in my other schools I went to was to participate in the girl's soccer team, but sadly I never had the opportunity to participate. I am always very scared of trying new things because I’m scared of failing at them, but I pushed myself to try out for soccer. I loved it, but I still noticed I wanted to do something more. Ever since I was little my family always ran for fun. At first, I didn’t see the fun in it, it was more like a chore than something I enjoyed; however, as I grew up, I really started to love working out in general and running was one of my favorite parts.
That’s when I noticed there was a Track and Field team in school, and that really caught my attention. The moment I tried out, I knew that this was the sport for me. It was a struggle juggling between two sports and sadly I had to leave soccer, but I knew that I wanted to commit to one sport and give my all. Track is something I constantly train for, I run on Saturdays and go to the gym for strength exercises. It's been 4 years since I tried out for Track and the team has grown, evolved, changed, evolved, and it is something I love to do after a day of school to rest my mind. I am very happy to say that I was chosen to be the Track captain, something I never thought it was possible. There are very special cases where sometimes I don’t go to practice, but other than that I’m there three times a week and training myself the other two. I know I’m not the best at Track and Field, and there are moments when I get nervous when we compete against great school’s, but those are things that I’m still improving on, even though from the first day I tried out I’ve noticed a breakthrough. It’s what makes Track a life lesson for me to get out of my comfort zone, and stop being afraid to fail. |
Gym+running
Apart from Track and Field, I keep on training on the days that I don’t have that afterschool activity. I usually run around the school campus and then go to the gym on days that I have time. In the summer I always try to maintain my shape by running every day and doing some strength exercises. I’ve shown commitment and perseverance through training because it takes a lot of willpower to wake up early on days where I have no school. It’s a difficult mindset to keep by doing something that isn’t mandatory to do, and it’s even more difficult to make a habit out of it. I’ve really had to learn to train my mind and body to have the motivation to train after a long day of school or a day off of school. Which is why I try to not do the same thing every day, meaning that sometimes I focus more on cardio and other days I focus more of strength and I try to do different types of exercises. Something that motivates me is my playlist because there is no such thing as working out without an awesome playlist, it’s just not possible for me. Training outside of track has taught me different skills other than gaining more strength in my muscles and physical skills to get better at track and field but also having more discipline with myself to do things, by pushing myself to workout out and adding that as a habit, it has also made me wake up more early in the morning, it makes me be more mindful of the things I eat and it really makes me happier and more energized to do something I love.
|
Volunteering at my sister's school
During the summer I went twice a week to go to my sister’s school where she teaches an elementary class. It was a real challenge to do this over the summer because I’m not a person that really likes to get into activities that get completely out of my comfort zone. This meant to talk to different people, help them with filing, think of engaging activities for the kids to do in class. This was a challenge but really great experience because I learned different skills that even helped me for the starting semester. One of the biggest skills was organization, because I I went to file the papers, I noticed that filing the papers one way took too long, so I created new ways to make it easier and quicker for me to do it, which lead me to have more time to have other things to get done. Also working with my sister’s students made me lose the fear of talking to other people, even though they were younger than me it was still a baby step towards talking more. I had to come up with different activities to make my sister’s class more engaging, and I even got to teach them some different English tips for their creative writing. Apart from that working on waking up early to make it early for when her class started was also a challenge I pulled through. These skills I practiced constantly served me a lot for this semester, and I can see a difference in my character.
|
Tri-M
One of the ways I’ve continued to be connected to music in school is Tri-m. Tri-M is an honor society, that allows students to share their passion for music in the community, which is why I really wanted to be a part of this honor society. Being a part of this society has allowed me to be a part of something I love to do in school, each member shares their talent. This requires me to be more outgoing with presenting and that's something I have to do. However, one of the hardest things for me is presenting in front of a large group of people, which is why even though I do present more I know I could do better. That is a goal I’m setting for myself, because I know that if I don’t push myself to be more outgoing, then I will never feel like I’m showing that passion for music in this community. However, the times I get to present are moments of accomplishment because I know how hard it is for me to get out of that comfort zone. I always give the time I have for this society whether it means to help open doors for different concerts, sell food to raise money for Tri-M, and participate in the High school choir concerts.
|
Ukelelesis
Ever since I was a little girl, music has been around me. Moving to different places has allowed me to see the different cultures and different types of music genres. I find it amazing how one simple instrument can create a beautiful melody and a combination of instruments make amazing songs. Music has been alive for ages, it has the ability to connect to every person in their own way, which is why it’s something I never wanna let go of. And since I don’t have a music class right now, I try to stay as connected as to it as possible. Which is why my sister and I decided a couple of years ago to create an account on Instagram: Ukelelesis. We both sing and play our Ukelele, and this is an account where we show our talent just for fun. It’s a way to keep practicing new songs and show our love for music. I haven’t really kept posting more videos but I do continue to play by myself in my room. The reason for this account isn’t to go viral or to gain followers, but by showing what we love to do and it’s one of the ways I promised myself I wouldn’t leave music on the side. Even though timing doesn’t allow us to keep posting on a daily basis, I still play my ukelele by myself, find different songs to do and always sing with my sister when we are able to.
|
Meltz
In the IA we had a business unit, and my group and I decided to give back to the community with Meltz, a sandwich business with 4 different types of sandwiches. This was a challenge because building a business is not easy. There are many steps to be able to build a business but the real tricky part is maintaining that business afloat. We went from deciding the branding, deciding the sandwiches, prototyping those sandwiches, planing the meal preps, deciding the days to sell, etc. to have selling day smooth and sailing. And that wasn’t the end of it, each day we sold, we noticed that there still needed to make some changes to make our brand and business more noticeable in the community. In this project, I noticed how in a business everything needs to have unity and a purpose. I learned how appearance is big in business especially how from the very first sell. In the very beginning, our posters were sloppy and drawn with markers, then we noticed how unprofessional that looked so we made laminated posters and placed different decorations, added music so that people would be attracted to coming to our stand. It was a challenge to go over 30 sandwiches and sadly we were never able to. Which is why we decided to close up Meltz and come up with another idea, it was a great learning outcome that showed the need for a sense of urgency and taking the first steps. The money we made of profit, even though we did not make a lot, we were able to give it to Habla Roosevelt which is a club that teaches the worker’s kids English, this way we also gave back to our community.
|
IA philosophy Book
An IA unit, we have been learning about is philosophy. We did this by learning different terms and concepts, reading various books, listening to podcasts, and even watching movies. We started out by asking ourselves: “how do we want to live?”
The purpose of this project was to put our life in practice, we need to reflect on a dysfunctional belief we had, which is a thought or mindset that is an obstacle in our lives, and then from that dysfunctional belief, we had to come up with a new truth connected with our dysfunctional belief. It was about challenging yourself to believe in something that will help succeed in life, through learning different philosophies. So, with all the information we learned through the media we had, we would synthesize and make a reason for it in our lives by prototyping to start believing in our truth. During the process of this unit, I noticed a change in myself and noticed how I want to live my life. Of course, it’s not that easy which is why setting a clear idea of what we would like to achieve in our life was important, because even though this unit will end, in life it’s never-ending and ever-changing. The relationships I had amongst the IA cohort has grown immensely and I’ve learned so from them. But how could we give back to the community? We decided to make a book, where each of us would write a chapter about our dysfunctional belief and our continued journey about how we still battle with our problems and are still working on it. We have decided to make this book and give it to someone that actually who needs it and will take it seriously so that it is a help for them to find meaning in their lives and to be aware that there are other ways to try to go through our troubles in life. Even though it seems like it sometimes, we aren’t alone. And we wanted to give that help through this book. |
Deep Dive
In 10th grade IA I was able to be a part of a very rigorous project called the Deep Dive. This is a project where we would need to choose a problem going on in Lima, that we would be interested in tackling. My partner and I focused on how Lima doesn’t have many places for low-income families that come from Peru’s provinces to stay in Lima while their kids are diagnosed with cancer. During our research, we would start diving deeper into the problem to find that there is a home called "Inspira", ran by Ricardo Pun. It’s a home that allows families whose children need treatment to stay for free during their time. We were able to visit the home, the kids, and him. We saw what they needed and the objective was to come up with a solution to be able to help them. Since we couldn’t make or build more homes, we decided to help raise awareness of "Inspira", this way they would get more donations and money. We helped them by selling shirts for a walk-a-thon they had already been planning and starting to make advertisements to post throughout the school. During the process of this project, we needed to take pictures, we had been learning the principles of photography, and showcase these pictures in a photo exhibition my cohort and I planned called Spectrum. This was one of the first projects where I needed to talk to people and contact them and it was a huge challenge for me because I’m not used to having that kind of responsibility and having to do something based on a real-life problem. It not only opened my eyes to a reality I had not known of in-depth about Lima, but it also allowed me to build character.
|
Singing in Church Choir
I go to church every Sunday and ever since I moved here I was always very intrigued to join the church’s choir; however, I never pushed myself to do it. It wasn’t until a few weeks ago where I decided I’d give it a shot and join. It is a very fun experience, especially because I’ve never done a service for my church before and this is even better because it relates to one of the things I love to do: music. We rehearse every Saturday from 3:30- 5:30, to learn the songs that we will be singing the next day and then we perform for the mass at 10:30am. While I’m enjoying the service I am doing, there are also some sacrifices that I am taking upon, like my Saturday afternoons and it takes a lot of responsibility to set up everything before mass starts. I am really trying to manage my time well so that I can balance my school work, family time, and helping out the choir, especially now during SAT prep. This is an experience that I don’t regret being a part of because I have met very kind people that are outside of school and I am able to get to know others and get out of my comfort zone, something that I still struggle in doing sometimes.
Marketing the IA - Director Role
In this unit of the IA, we are doing marketing and what we are marketing is the IA. This project entails us to show something that people don’t see and it is something challenging to do. The IA program is something that I hold very dear to my heart. It has allowed me to learn not only content but also about myself as a person. During my years in IA, I have been challenged to question, to research, and to think beyond myself. It has allowed me to realize some capabilities I didn’t know I had within me through feedback, which is why marketing something so valuable is scary and hard. Right now, one of the ways we intend to market the Innovation Academy is by making a video that advertises what the Innovation Academy is. When we started designating roles I was chosen to fulfill the role as director for the video. In all the projects in the IA so far, I have never had such an important role, and even though I was flattered I was chosen this role, I was also terrified. This role plays a big responsibility in the decision making of the video, and making one wrong decision could make or break the video. Although I feel the pressure, I have been giving my all in this project in being as questionable as possible about everything we do during the process of storyboard making and filming. In this video, we want to tell a story and I want to make sure we are telling the right one. With the help of my IA peers, I’m starting to be a leader I didn’t know I had it in me to be, and this experience is allowing me to develop confidence in myself.
|
ICC Mural Painting
For the first time in my 4 years of ICC, I decided to participate in the ICC mural painting. It was a very time-consuming job because I had to stay longer hours in school to be able to fill my shift; however, I don’t regret signing up. I really love painting and I don’t always like to be a part of something that I could make or break, which is why I had to push myself out of my comfort zone to sign up and do the mural. I really loved working with my grade to make the mural. My shift was after school and on a Saturday so that I could fully commit to the job and do it well. I collaborated with my peers to make a well-done mural and if I needed to stay more time because someone was running late, I stayed until that person came so that we would be able to finish the mural on time, I knew that it important for us to have the complete list of people needed to finish the mural. It was an experience that I will remember always because it was fun to show my art skills in something other than art class and to be a part of the mural in my senior year.
|
ICC decoration
During ICC I was asked to help the decorating of the main entrance of the gym for the senior area and also the senior area. This meant that I had a budget to maintain and craft different decorations to come to school prepared. I went on Saturday to buy the decorations and since we were on a budget, we also handmade some decorations. When we were ready to decorate the first area which was the gym, my group and I stayed late so that we would be early to start decorating and finish on time. I worked together with my group so that we did the decorations fast enough but well constructed so that the decorations would look good and show our ICC spirit. It was stressful to have time management because there were many decorations that weren’t coming out as expected, but working collaboratively with my group to make the obstacles work was very fun and helpful. Next I also went to the decorating of the senior area, so I arrived at 6am to school with all the materials and worked together to finish on time before school started, it took a lot of responsibility in my part because I was the one bringing most of the decorations so it was important for me to be the first one to arrive. I really enjoyed working together with the people in my grade to make the decorations look good for our last ICC.
|