Jada Gyening
Jada Gyening is a senior at Bayside High School. A resident of Queens Village, she has enjoyed her high school experience and feels very prepared for the future. Gyening has set high goals for herself after graduation.
“I am really hoping to get into Princeton University and double major in international relations and sociology,” she said.
Gyening aspires to one day work for the United Nations. Her involvement with school clubs and extra-curricular activities has served as inspirations. She raised money for UNICEF with her school’s Key Club and has worked a summer daycare job with Haitian-American United Progress in Queens.
In addition to being a member of the Key Club, she is also a member of the Fashion Club, Film Club and cheerleading team, among many other activities. She noted the Film Club has one of her favorites.
“I have a lot of say in the club because I am the vice president. We do parodies and film movie trailers of movies that students come up with.”
Gyening has taken Advanced Placement courses in English and Spanish and is a member of her school’s National Honor Society. She was also accepted into the Junior Statesmen summer program in 2010 that is held at Princeton University. The program is for students interested in all branches of governmental studies. Her experience at the program led her to realize how much she wanted to have a career in the United Nations’ Economic and Social Council.
Gyening looks forward to helping foreign countries with whatever social problems they may have.
“I have just always wanted to help others.”
Alexia Rivers
Alexia Rivers is a senior at St. Francis Preparatory School in Fresh Meadows and is a resident of Saint Albans. Her greatest academic achievement has been her induction into the National Spanish Honors Society.
“It was amazing to be rewarded for my hard work and to be acknowledged for my dedication to learning the language,” she said.
Rivers has also taken advanced placement courses in government and U.S. politics. She took an honors class in physics as well. She has set high goals for herself upon her graduation.
“I plan on going to Stony Brook University, SUNY Albany or North Carolina State. I want to go to graduate school and earn a medical degree and find out what I want to specialize in.”
Rivers is involved with all sorts of extra-curricular activities. She is a member of the Step Squad, West Indian Club, Hero Club and French Club and takes part in Liturgical Dance.
Rivers has also made an impact in her community. She became involved with Campus Ministry, where she volunteered her time to help others who were less fortunate. She helped out homeless people by working in soup kitchens. She also volunteered at a Catholic elementary school, where she helped children with their homework and practiced leadership and responsibility.
Aliyah Johnson
Aliyah Johnson is a senior at Townsend Harris High School and she lives in South Ozone Park. She has taken a plethora of Advanced Placement and College Now courses including: Spanish, sociology and anthropology. She has also taken honors classes for pre-calculus and calculus. She was awarded Magna Cum Laude on the National Latin Exam.
Though she acknowledged that the workload may be strenuous because typically each teacher assigns an hour worth of homework every night, she believes it is all for the better in terms of her future.
“I am going to be prepared when I go to college. I have never been bored at school,” she said.
She said that the extra class that is assigned to students in her school can sometimes makes it difficult to have much of a social life. However, she plays softball for her community league and participated in a school musical as a dancer. Johnson has done volunteer work as well. She has volunteered at a political office and a daycare that she had attended as a child. Johnson puts her intelligence to good use when she tutors at the Flushing Library.
Johnson would like to study nursing at Northeastern University, Temple University or Stony Brook University.
Nadia Thomas
Nadia Thomas is a senior at The Mary Louis Academy, located in Jamaica Estates. It is a Catholic college preparatory school for young women. She is a resident of Fresh Meadows.
Thomas has taken difficult courses in science since her high school career started. As a freshman she took ninth grade biology honors and in the eleventh grade she followed that up by taking physics honors class. She has also done volunteer work in the medicine field in addition to her courses.
Thomas said that balancing her personal life with everything that goes along with senior year, such as choosing a college and completing exams, can be stressful and presents a challenge.
Regardless of how big a challenge it may have been, Thomas said that she enjoyed her high school experience. Upon graduation she plans to attend Queens College and she hopes to be accepted into the Macaulay Honors Program. It is a very competitive program and while the participating City University of New York (CUNY) schools accept varying numbers of students, Queens College has traditionally accepted only approximately 40 students out of hundreds of applicants. She intends to continue her work in the scientific field by majoring in bio-chemistry.
Gabriela Campoverde
Gabriela Campoverde is a senior at Townsend Harris High School. All Townsend Harris High School courses are at the honors level and Campoverde has gone beyond that standard in her academic career. She has taken Advanced Placement courses in world history, U.S. government, Japanese and calculus. She has also already taken college courses at New York University and Queens College. Campoverde did not miss a day of school from freshman year to junior year and has been on the Principal’s Honor Roll throughout the duration of that time as well.
Campoverde has been a part of a wide-range of extra-curricular activities in high school. She is a member of the fencing team, Scrabble club, Key Club and debate team. She has also been involved with community service by volunteering at numerous companies, notably the Barack Obama Presidential Campaign and the Salvation Army.
Campoverde has worked as an intern for the Brooklyn Supreme Court Criminal Division and the Queens Legal Aid Society in the Juvenile Delinquent Division.
She has said that being accepted into the National Japanese Honor Society has been her greatest academic achievement. This award is bestowed upon students who received a high average and demonstrated work ethic and dedication towards learning Japanese.
