My older sisters are geniuses. They’ve always had a natural talent for school and science—and I’ve always felt compared to them. But what they never did was sports. Physical strength and agility is where I shine. To stand out in a family of amazing kids, I’ve joined crew. What I've enjoyed the most is calling the shots as coxswain. I was first interested in crew in middle school, which is when I began summer session with the school club to learn about the sport. When freshman year came, I officially joined the crew team. We are a small club, and often in the background of schools with sometimes seven times the size of our team. But one advantage to a smaller team is that we are always on the water. None of us wait on the sidelines during practices, waiting for our turn in a boat.
In school I am involved in advocating for LGBTQ and women's rights. Since I go to a relatively rural school system the homophobia is strong here— so I stand up for the kids effected by the bigotry of our town. I’ve helped change the language deemed okay in our school. It used to be commonplace for boys to joke about raping lesbians — I put a stop to that really quickly by going through the school administration to make sure the issue was addressed with the boys . The excuse “boys will be boys” was never acceptable to me. Despite being targeted by the bigots in the school for calling them out, I haven’t stopped. And I never will.