To Whom this May Concern,

Now like most, I do face hardships. I have dealt with depression and anxiety during all of
my high school career. They still bother me at times, however, I have the insight on how to handle
my depression and anxiety. During cross country, I had learned that I have messed up hips that
turn to much to the left and problems with my lower back. The summer before my freshman year, I
could barely walk due to the problems. My running career suffered. During my track season my
freshman year, I had to stop due to the pain. If I had continue to run track I would of had to have
back surgery at age 14. Now I still have back and hip problems but I have learned how to deal with
them so it doesn’t get that bad again. Overcoming these hardships and learning how to deal with
them has helped shape who I am. Running was my escape from life that I used to deal with my
depression and anxiety. Not being able to run hurt me in more ways than one. It was during this
time I started to take a liking to cooking and baking. Thus started my love of making food. Looking
through my high school assignments, all of my club and sport achievements, and looking forward
to my career and college in designing my portfolio website, I found what I am passionate about.
I don't mean to burst your bubble, one has to take classes in high school. Now these can
range from many different things from electives to college to required classes. The artifacts I
choose were of the apa research paper did my junior year about gun education. My theme for my
portfolio was passion. I have always been passionate about guns. During forensics I gave a speech
on gun education. I knew this speech need more so for the apa paper I research more about that
topic. Not only am I passionate about gun education and guns, but also learning a second
language. I have taken Spanish for four years. Therefore, I wanted to put something in my portfolio
about it. My Spanish artifact is a poem I did my senior year. I have to write in seven different
tenses in Spanish and then translate that into English all in the form of a poem. This pushed my
skills in learning Spanish. Another thing I am passionate about is running. While running is more a
special interest, I wrote a poem in composition one, my college class, about running. This poem
was the only work of mine that made it into the Literary Journal. This journal is made up of the best
of the best. I am not the best writer so getting something into the journal is a big deal to me.
Learning my passions was hard. However, learning them for my special interests areas was
easier than others. The first artifact is running. As i stated before I have always been passionate
about running since I started in sixth grade. I have ran for seven years. So the artifact, is a
collection of pictures and quotes. The pictures are my teammates and me along with the plack I
got for making it to state my sixth grade year with all of my medals around it. Although some of
the medals are outdated, but they all have meaning for I have struggle with back problems that
have really affected my running career. The next artifact is my letter S with all the pins of clubs,
sports, and honors that I have lettered in over my high school year. I am passionate about the
things I do. Therefore, putting this in my portfolio I am able to show I give the best I can give in
anything I do. Third artifact on the site is my trap shooting medal and my gun. I have got second in
our conference twice, my junior year and senior year during the fall season. As stated before, I am
passionate about guns and, also, shooting. I have shot on the team for four years ever since it was
started my freshman year. This sport has showed my to never give up and fight like your the
champion. When I first started, I was horrible. After determination and faking the confidence until I
made it, I finally brought my scores up to a great score. I am shooting 18-21 out of 25 which is a
lot better than 3-14. The last artifact in my special interest area is my forensic medals. I have like
forensic more than dabate every year. I am able to give speeches in forensics about the things I
am passionate about. Sophomore year, which the year we learned I was good at persuading
people, I gave a speech over technology because at the time many people were overly using it.
Junior year I wrote one of my best speeches over gun education. While is speech is over one of the
most controversial topics, I place first in many tournaments because I chose gun education.
What do you want to be when you grow up? Is one of the most ask questions through our
school careers along side the question. Where are you going to college? I hate these questions
because I would have to answer; I don’t know. However until about my junior year I found out that
I am passionate about cooking and baking. I was inspired by my great grandmother, who I have
always adored. Therefore, I am going to college to get my Bachelors in Culinary Arts. I am going to
College of the Ozarks in Missouri. They have a great culinary program and one of the college goals
is to help students graduate with little to no debt. Which as I have walked through the process of
choosing a college, this became one of my biggest goals. As a result, one of the artifacts is my
scholarship awards from this college and my acceptance letter. The next artifact is my certificate
of ServSafe. I have to be ServSafe before I can work with any food. To show that I am able to keep
people from getting food illnesses and how to be safe. This certificate and process of getting it will
always be with me for the rest of my life.
While hardships have help shaped who I am today, this portfolio help me to find my
passions. I learned more about what I am passionate about by figuring out what artifacts I want in
my portfolio. My high school career has meant more about learning soft skills and important and
need skills than anything. All of my electives are hands on classes while my required classes are all
up level to prepare myself for college. The biggest thing I learned during my high school career is I
love learning new things. My life is driven by I want to build up my experience and learn how to do
new things and make new things. What feels like the end is often the beginning.
Graduate of 2019,
Grace Clark
 Cover Letters

Trap Artifacts:
I have shot on our trap team for the past four years since it was started my freshman year. This
picture shows the medals I had won during the fall season my junior and senior year. I placed second
in our conference two years in a row. The gun in the picture is my own gun that I have shoot every
season of trap.
The Trap Artifacts falls into the special interest category. As stated before I have been shooting
trap since my freshman year when another senior started this club as their senior project. Trap
shooting has been one of the only sports I am decent at. This sport has help to build up my confidence
when it is down. Trap has taught me to never give up when you don’t get it the first time. I struggle
when I first started. However, my second year shooting it all clicked. I understood what I was doing
wrong and right. I soon started to break clays. I have determination.
This artifact is important to me because I learn I was good at something. I love the feeling you
get when you break a clay into a million pieces. Trap shooting is my escape from life along with
running. For a few seconds it is only me, my gun, and the target. Nothing else matters at that point. I
have been hunting since I was little. This is a sport that my dad and I connect on. "Yes, I'm a dad's girl,
but daddy taught me how to shoot."-Unknown. Also I would go trap shooting with my uncle before he
past away my freshman year. This sports probably has more emotional connections to me then any
other one. I will continue shooting trap whenever I get the chance.

CofO Acceptance letter & Scholarship:

This is the college I am going to in the spring semester of 2020. I leave in January. This is my
acceptance letter to the College of the Ozarks along with my scholarship I got by being able to go
there. This scholarship helps to pay for my tuition while the work program it states is how I will show
that I deserve to be at this college. I will work to pay off the rest of my tution to get my degree without
debt. I will graduate debt free from a private college with a Bachelor degree in Culinary Arts.
This completely falls into the career and college category. This college has a 12% acceptance
rate. 4,000 people on average apply and only 400 are accepted to the college. Being able to get into
this good of a college shows that I can do the impossible with God. For this college is a christian
college. All the students that go to this college work to pay off their tuition at the college. The college is
it’s own town. This college is known a Hard Work U. I have always work a part-time job while being a
full-time high school student and an athlete. Therefore, I am a hardworker. I push myself to do my
best.
This is huge to me because I usually don’t have much hope that I can be apart of great things.
Being apart of this college, has given my this sense of hope. That God had a place for me because I
didn’t know what to do about college nor how to pay for it. I will be able to work in a four star
restaurant and hotel while I am there as my job. I will be getting amazing experience for my career in
life as a cook or baker. Their culinary program is one of the best. It is great with great classes. This
college will give me an advantage in life and my career. For they also help all graduates of the college
get a job after college. They have a 100% job placement after school.

Running Life Literary Journal:

This paper is a poem wrote during my senior English class that I am taking for college credit.
This paper is called Running Life because it is about a girl runner running through Sterling. Running
life was my only paper that was put into this year Literary Journal. The Literary Journal is a big journal
of all of the senior english classes papers. All the best of the best are accepted into it.
This is part of my academic focus area. For I did this during my senior English class. I also
took this for college credit to get as many general education classes out of the way. This paper is one
of the best poems I have ever done. Also it is a descriptive paper that is hard then it seems. I got this
paper into the Literary Journal as stated before is the best of the best.
This important to me because I have always struggle in English because I just never
understood. I was always better at math than English. So being able to get this paper, one that explain
what I experience while I am running, into the Journal is a big thing. Therefore, it is one of my artifacts.
I learned that I am able to do anything that I put my mind to.
What Feels Like the End is Often the Beginning