Extracurricular Activities

Join Us

Get Involved

Senn Beggining Band

During Sophmore Year, I was apart of Senn's Begginng Band class and played the tenor saxophone. I had prior music experience from my time practicing the Piano, so I was able to understand the basics of music theory. Nonetheless, actually playing the instrument was a whole new ordeal.

When I first started, I couldn't even get may saxophone to make a proper sound. This persisted for several days, though I didn't let that discourage me. I brought it up on myself to take my saxophone home everyday, while carefully analyzing the blemishes of my technique in order to refine how I held the instrument and blew into the mouth piece. After countless trial and error, along with the spirit of commitment, I was eventually able to make the proper noise when blowing, as well as playing the first 5 notes.

As the school year progressed, I increasingly augmented my skills, being able to play a wide variety of notes and musical pieces. We had three major concerts in total: The Winter Concert, Spring Concert and Graduation. For each one, I practiced relentlessly the weeks prior, making sure I could play the song by memory flawlessly.

Being apart of the band was an experience I will never forget. I particularly like how my contributions were a fraction of a greater whole. I loved seeing my collaboration skills grow, as me and my band mates synergized our instruments with one another to create wonderful music.

Summer Extracurricular

The 6x3 Project

During the summer after freshman year, I applied for the 6x3 Project, a six-week program by the STEM organizations Code Nation and Bright Project. We learned coding basics from Code Nation and explored business and entrepreneurship with Bright Project. While lesson focuses varied, they aligned toward the end, which I’ll explain shortly.

At Code Nation, I learned the fundamentals of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Coding was challenging for me, and I often struggled to make my code functional. However, I didn’t let frustration deter me, and I wasn’t afraid to ask for help from staff and peers. By week three, we were tasked with our first major project: creating a "Choose Your Own Adventure" game. I spent days perfecting it, fixing bugs, and adding visuals and music. Although it was stressful at times, I wanted to push my limits, and after intense dedication, my game was finally complete.

In the Bright Project, we learned about the concept of rare diseases. With that knowledge, we worked in teams to create hypothetical businesses aimed at helping those affected. We also crafted compelling elevator pitches for our projects, significantly enhancing my communication skills. Near the end of the program, Code Nation and Bright Project merged, leading us to create a website to raise awareness for a specific rare disease, which we then pitched as a team.

This final project was the culmination of everything we had learned. My team and I spent days planning the website's structure, adding details, and helping each other debug code. We presented our website and pitch at a Google office to a large audience, dividing the presentation evenly among us. With countless practice sessions, our pitch was a success

Overall, I’m deeply grateful to have attended the 6x3 Project. Although I’ve realized I don’t want a career in computer science or entrepreneurship, the skills I gained will stay with me forever. Collaborating with new people from different schools and backgrounds was a wonderful experience, as we quickly became friends and learned of one another. I saw large improvements to my communication and critical thinking skills, and I genuinely believe it has made me a better worker.

25 E Washington St, Chicago, IL 60602, 6x3 Project Location

Code Nation Fellowship

After completing The 6x3 Project, I along with my teammates decided to join together for Code Nation's Fellowship Program, though it illustrated a drastically differing experience. It took place after school, during Sophomore year, once a week with a two hour duration.

With this new limited time frame, I had to actively make sure I retain the knowledge gained from each session to successfully apply it next week. On top of that, I needed to balance it with my school assignments. As time went the this problem soon diminished, as I sought to find ways to work efficiently and organize priorities. The program lasted from October to May, and the only time I ever missed a day was when I had to perform in a concert from band class. Even then, I would always reach out to staff to get an understanding on what I had missed.

Our most notable project was during December, when we had to code a rudimentary portfolio of ourselves. The deadline was before winter break, which was also the deadline for my 1st semester finals. Finding time to code a satisfactory portfolio while also studying for my final exams was a challenge, but I was up for the task. I made sure manage my priorities well, from the most demanding classes to the least, while sacrificing free time to code my portfolio. In the end, my dedication payed off, for I got excellent scores on my exams, along with a complete portfolio before winter break.