Q:  What extra-curricular activities are you involved in?

A: I’m in Marching Band and National Honor Society.

Q: How have these extra-curricular activities impacted your high school experience?

A: Marching Band completely shaped my friend group, and it’s affecting what college I want to go to as well; if there isn’t a band program at a college I’m looking at, it’s a big factor.

Q: What instrument/s do you play?

A: I play the clarinet.

Q: How long have you been playing the clarinet?

A: Six years, so since fourth grade.

Q: What would you say is your favorite part about Marching Band?

A: I’m a drum major, so I’m not actually marching, but I like getting to meet a new class of freshmen every year and have them be in our big family.

Q: What does being a Drum Major entail?

A: Primarily, we conduct the band, we keep time for them at the front. We’re the leaders of the marching band. You have an audition your junior year and it’s a leadership position, it means that you run rehearsal a lot of the time and that people come to with their different issues and you help them out with different aspects of Marching Band like music or marching.

Q: What have you learned from having this position?

A: [I learned] how to be a better people person and general people skills.

Q: Do you have any other hobbies or interests?

A: I knit; I love knitting.

Q: How did you get into knitting?

A: It was maybe two or three Christmases ago, my cousin taught me how to knit and I just started making scarves and headbands for all my friends. I’ve sold a couple as well so I can make money off of it too.

Q: What do you think causes the most stress in your life?

A: School, definitely. It’s junior year so I’ve got a lot going on; I’ve got the ACT and just a bunch of projects that all seem to happen at once.

Q: How do you cope with this stress?

A: I like taking naps, I take a lot of naps. After school, before I even start my homework, I just take a nap and decompress.

Q: Who is your role model?

A: Probably my friend Michelle [Ross]. She was a senior drum major this year when I was a junior drum major so I learned a lot from her in the marching band aspect of everything like how to be a good leader, but she’s also a great person. She’s really nice to everyone, so she’s a role model in that aspect too.

Q: Do you have any specific goals for the future?

A: I want to be able to travel when I’m older.

Q: Any specific places you want to travel to?

A: I want to go to Germany [because] that’s where my family is from and Italy as well because my mom is from Italy.

Q: Is there anything interesting about yourself that not many other people know?

A: I just have a lot of weird things like I have a really long tongue so people find that weird. I [also] have a really flexible back; it folds in half sorta, not really.