When I first started AMES, I considered myself a princess; I always wore my crown to school. And I thought I could slide through, just as I did in junior high. I just wanted to have fun. I didn’t take school seriously.

It wasn’t long before I realized I couldn’t do that. The work here was more difficult and the teachers expected more. I remember one teacher asking me why I was at AMES if I wasn’t willing to work. When I first heard that, I was in shock, also kinda mad. But then I realized it was true and it wasn’t meant to be mean, Mr. Strang really cared. This was the most significant thing said to me in my 4 years of high school. From that day on, I actually started doing my homework. But I wasn’t a good student yet; I was still a princess. 

During my 10th grade year, I felt like I needed to get more involved with school; it might make it more fun! I decided to try science fair; I had a blast with my project. I looked at different genres of music to determine whether they were calming or caused anxiety. At the Regional Fair, I took 1st place in Health and Medicine. I discovered that I was finally good at something. It was also my favorite thing to do. Science fair motivated me; this was going to get me somewhere. I even told Tanya that I was going to receive a scholarship before I graduated because of one of my future projects.

Eleventh grade, I was still very interested in the science fair, but Mrs. Vickers and Mr. Strang told me that I had to put more effort into raising my GPA and not just focus on science fair. I didn’t like disappointing them so I tried to improve my grades throughout the year. For my project, I chose a messy experiment that involved having my friends spit in a cup. I learned something I had always secretly known…. “Girls rule…and boys drool.” Now really, I learned that boys produce more saliva and that saliva production affects the number of cavities we have. My project once again inspired me to do well in school. And that year my GPA rose.

In twelfth grade, I wanted to work on an experiment that dealt with public health. So I decided to look at potentially harmful microbes on infant changing tables in public restrooms. I learned they were covered with harmfulbacteria. This project was my best of all. It was a difficult project though and required a lot of time and effort. One of my goals was to go to the International Science Fair. I found out that I would have a better chance of getting there if I had a teammate. Well, one of the students in science fair had a project that didn’t go as planned, so we paired up. While working together, I learned how hard it was to agree on stuff. One time we even had to meet with Dr. Church and Mrs. Vickers to discuss some problems. Dr. Church called it marriage counseling. That was a huge step in my learning process: learning how to work with somebody, like scientists do in the real world. With the two of us working together, it made our project twice as great. We ended up going to the Regional Fair and won a grand prize… A trip to the International Science Fair! But that wasn’t all… For the first year of the Regional Fair, a scholarship was awarded to the grand prizewinners. This was the best day ever because it’s something that I had been working towards for years. I had achieved my goal. I was awarded $84,000 in scholarship money that night. So in the fall, I will be attending Westminster College, planning to major in the sciences!

During my 4 years here at AMES, I have learned how to work hard. The teachers at AMES have all been such great support, especially Mrs. Vickers, Mr. Strang, and Dr. Church. There are no other teachers like AMES teachers. I’m so grateful to have come here. This school helped shape me in a positive way. I can tell you that I am not just a princess anymore. I have been challenged, I have learned through my experiences and I have traded my crown in for a lab coat.