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Good morning, my name is Alondra and as you may know I am here to share and reflect

with you guys on my four years here at VISA. I am sure I am not the only senior who feels this
way, but this whole year has been nothing but a huge blur. I still dont feel like I am a current
senior and I am sure it wont hit me until probably grad night. It should be left unsaid by now,
but VISA is most definitely not your most common or regular high school. I may have not gotten
the typical high school experience I was expecting but it was in this specific place in which I
gained much preparation for college and whats to come.
My first day of freshman year was, again, nothing but a blur. I do remember, though, how
nervous I was the whole day. The seniors at the time seemed like giants to me and even though
this is a really small school, I still managed to be late to my second period which was Algebra 2.
(point to freshman year tab HIV) It was actually in this class in which I received one of my very
first projects that dealt with HIV cases in a specific country. My partner and I selected Swaziland
and acted as Public Policy Analysts; investigating how often new cases of HIV occurred within
the country and what we believed to be effective in reducing new cases. Along with our research
on what were the major factors that helped contribute to the spread of HIV, we created a
polynomial equation with the statistics and numbers of HIV cases recorded each year. This
equation served its purpose in allowing us to predict an estimate of the amount of future new
cases in 5-20 years, as well expanded my academic skills as Excel played a key part in
completing this project. Before I had minimal exposure to this program, but Excel has, since
then, been a prominent tool in my life and my familiarization with it has only increased. This
project not only allowed me to communicate ideas and recognize perspectives, but investigate
the world as well. With the creation of our research and data I was able to communicate my ideas
and provide suggestions to strive for a more convincing future. I recognized perspectives because

I realized that many other countries are not privileged enough with the knowledge, education, or
money needed to prevent the disease from spreading. And lastly my partner and I investigated
the world with our lengthy research of what specific factors contributed to the continual spread.
Freshman year came to an end, and just like that I had one year down of high school. I
considered sophomore year to be one of my favorite years and it was in this grade in which I was
confronted with one of the most stressful yet exciting projects of my life and that was V.E.I. (go
to sophomore tab, VEI) We were given the responsibility of coming up with a beneficial,
environmentally friendly proposal to possibly integrate in our school or community. It was with
this project in which my skills for academics increased significantly. Because we had to work as
one big group, I had to learn how to cope with the different personalities of my peers in order to
create a working, harmonious environment. I gained new effective ways of taking control as a
leader and how to manage my time properly. For example, meeting all the certain deadlines to
avoid falling back and wasting any unnecessary time.
I was given the chance to strengthen my ability to recognize perspectives through my
experience of attending the Festival of Colors, for my honors English class as at the time we
were learning about the Indian culture. I was able to interview two Indians named Nita and Rupa.
After approaching them, they were kind enough to open up and share with me their culture and
way of life. My outlook on the Indian culture completely changed as beforehand I had such a
close minded view on their culture. I had never really put into perspective the importance of their
rituals and beliefs. After talking to them, I understood and came to the realization that the Indian
culture has completely different values and attitudes towards life, than how Americans do. As
Rupa clearly pointed out, the main difference between the American and Indian culture is that
Indians focus more on their spirituality and souls whereas Americans tend to care more about the

materialistic things in life. This experience most definitely taught me that there are millions of
perspectives, opinions, and theories out there in which we are all entitled to and deserve to be
treated with the same full respect from one another.
I was told junior year would be the hardest, but after my experience I have to disagree.
Junior year had nothing on senior year, but it was indeed this year when I began to take the most
initiative. (go to Junior year tab, AIDS walk) I was not only able to recognize perspectives but to
take action as well. On October 23, 2013 I had the opportunity to participate in the Los Angeles
AIDS Walk. The AIDS Walk is an AIDS service organization in which they have dedicated their
lives to improve the lives of those individuals affected with the disease. Before participating in
this event, I had not made the effort to completely familiarize myself over the subject matter of
HIV. But after having the opportunity to interact with those individuals I realized they are as
much a human being as we are, meaning they deserve the same respect we demand to receive
from others. They live their life no differently and it is disappointing to know how tough they
have it due to other peoples subjective attitudes. This walk contributed in my ability to
recognize perspectives because in my experience of walking for a cause, I not only understood
the HIV community, but as well witnessed for myself all the negativity they receive as people
were on the sides holding up offensive signs, boycotting the event. Once again I was reminded
that there will always be those who will never meet eye to eye with you and obtain different
beliefs.
This year as well gave me the opportunity to expand my college and career readiness as I
was one of the few chosen to visit the beautiful campus of the University of California San
Diego. The campus is so big that they have their own personal transportation system within. Not
only were we able to tour the campus, but as well receive feedback and insight of the college

experience from the very own UCSB students themselves. It was overwhelming to hear what it
took when applying to universities but that experience allowed me to prepare myself for my own
personal experience when applying to the universities of my choice last semester. My knowledge
since then has only been expanding as before I was unaware of all the financial help available
besides scholarships and now I know how exactly FAFSA is broken down into regarding loans,
grants, and work studies.
Three years went by in a flash and senior year arrived just like that. It has yet to hit me
that I am finally at this point of my life, leaving the school environment I was so used to. Senior
year has been by far the most hectic and stressful year. The workload I had received prior years
seems minimal now compared to what I have completed these past two semesters. (refer to
senior year tab, Senior Job Shadow) Nonetheless, I have immensely grown in my ability to
investigate the world and greatly increased my college and career readiness all while in the
process of building my skills for academic success. Ms. Burnett assigned all of us seniors the Job
Shadow Project. This project allowed me to grow so much because I was confronted with real
life scenarios such as getting in contact with a university professor and properly interviewing and
communicating with her on a professional basis. I have grown in my ability to investigate the
world through this project because I was able to witness and experience a real nursing lecture at
UCLA. I was not only able to use my communication skills to effectively execute an interview,
but I was able to confirm that it is indeed this specific field that I wish to persue. This experience
only strengthened my ambitions and wishes to go into the medical field.
Not only was I able to investigate the world through the course of this past semester, but
as well enhance my college and career readiness and skills for academic success through the
completion of the Career Research Project. We were required to identify a specific career of our

choice in which we envision ourselves obtaining in the future and research what it actually takes
to get where it is that we want to be. My knowledge regarding college and my potential future
career has continued to enhance, as with the completion of this project I was able to prevent
myself from being unaware of all the steps required to get started on that learning path. The
completion of the actual Career Research speech demonstrated my growth in vital skills for
academic success such as public speaking. This is a vital skill because whether it is in school or
in the workforce, one will always be asked to speak in front of an audience, as I am doing right
now, to communicate ideas and or provide feedback. This past semester has allowed me to
further tackle the world and build my confidence and knowledge regarding college and future.
The only advice I can offer to the VISA faculty is to encourage the importance of the
SAT/ACT exams to the students. Encouraging them to take those tests as early as junior year
would be ideal for higher results. Last year, my advisory teacher would screen several practice
questions for a few weeks and would review with us the answers as well as what were some
helpful testing skills. I personally felt that even though it was only for a few weeks, the studying
done in class was extremely helpful. Of course that is never enough as these tests require a hefty
amount of studying from the students part, but if these tests were encouraged more in school I
think students would be more influenced to dedicating themselves more.
As for the students, I advise that if you already have a career path in mind, take the time
to start researching what requirements are needed to get to where you wish to get. That has to be
one of my very few regrets actually because even though since middle school I had the same
career choice in mind, I never took the time to actually do the research and I found out too late
that I should have started building my volunteer experience in hospitals throughout my high
school years. Regardless, it is never too late and whether or not you remain indecisive as to what

you want to do for the rest of your life keep in mind that high school is just another stepping
stone along the journey. College will most definitely expose you to the endless amount of
possibilities and I am sure that you will find a career you love. Thank you.

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