Awards I have earned:
College
Longhorn Marching Band - In my time as a student at the University of Texas in Austin, I have spent countless hours at work and at play with the Longhorn Marching Band. I find time outside of studies to rehearse for eight hours a week, in addition to travelling all across the state for football games. I was also given the honor of acting as the student teacher to the Longhorn Band's color guard in the Spring semester of 2008; while the usual instructor worked with half of my peers on flag, I taught the other half on rifle. It was a pleasant experience both for myself and for my peers, and all have given me positive feedback on my instruction and leadership skills, both during class hours and in working with them individually outside of class.
Identity Winterguard - In the Spring of 2008, I had the pleasure of being a member of a brand new independent winterguard called Identity. We, as a group of college and high school students from Austin, San Antonio, San Marcos, and Seguin, worked together to build an identity (no pun intended) for this new group. Together, we molded it into a friendly and well-known group, and went on to compete in the National championships.
Portfolio classes - Currently, I am in my second semester of the University of Austin Advertising's creative sequence, Portfolio. I considered it the highest honor, at the end of my sophomore year, to have my application for the sequence accepted. Somehow or other, I got it in my head that this acceptance note meant the end of my hard work. Believe me, I could not have been more wrong. In each semester of Portfolio, I and a copywriter partner take on three to four products of our choosing to design campaigns for. Each week, approximately 12 ads for our current product go on the board to be critiqued. And each day, my partner and I meet for anywhere up to 10 hours outside of our class schedule to brainstorm, draft, create, and perfect our ads. On the one hand, the hours, the stress, and the constant worry that "it's just not good enough yet!" are maddening... but on the other hand, I am growing close to amazing people in my field, building networks, and improving my work and program skills at an exponential rate. I believe I hold with the other students who have been lucky enough to go through this exemplary program when I say that it has been and continues to be hugely beneficial and a real pleasure. I hope to finish out my two remaining semesters at UT with the two final semesters of Portfolio.
High School
Color guard - For all four years of high school, I was been a member of the Cypress Falls Color Guard: an award winning organization full of good people who love to work. My accomplishments with this program include winning the guard's first and second State Champion title, first Southwest Power Regional Champion title, and a ranking of 7th out of approximately 300 competing units in National Championship. Hard work, long hours, and complete dedication to your sport is what the Cy Falls Guard is all about.
National Honor Society - The two years I spent in NHS were perhaps the best of my high school career. As part of the National Honor Society, I had several opportunities to assist with the leadership of my school by guiding freshmen and new students through the school, tutoring my peers, and helping the office staff to prepare for large parent-teacher events. My fellow honor students and I were happily active in our community and school. Keeping up with volunteer hours required a good deal of time that I didn't always have, but if I could do it again I would not choose any differently. The National Honor Society was a great experience, and a great way to finish off my high school years.
Web Mastering Class - Because I was already an enthusiast of the ever-changing world of web design, I opted to take a class in Web Mastering in hopes of learning a new trick or two. To my surprise, I entered the course with more knowledge of the subject than the teacher had, and on several occasions over the coarse of the year I was called on to solve problems that my teacher could not. In effect, the class that I intended to take only as a hobby turned into a new leadership experience!
Creative Writing - In my senior year, I opted to take a Creative Writing class. Without a doubt, it was my favorite class: it gave me a chance to do something I am not only good at, but ENJOY doing! If any high school course impacted my choice of career, I would say it must be this one: the open-minded, freeform attitude in the CW classroom is one I would definately like to find myself in in the future.
Computer Science - I finished out my senior year as the star pupil of my Computer Science class, walking away with a 98% at the end of the year. I chose to include this class in my resume because it had a way of making me think and problem-solve in ways that no other class could. Working around problems in Computer Science taught me to think "out of the box"; if there is one thing I took away from this class, it is that there is ALWAYS more than one way to solve a problem.
Literary Magazine - In my senior year, I earned a position as an editor for my school's literary magazine, a collection of short stories, poems, and artwork by the students. I was responsible for speaking in front of several classes to advertise the magazine, collecting students' submissions, reading and accepting or declining works, and making sure the magazine was arranged in an attractive, businesslike manner.
Volunteer Work:
Super People Using Riding Skills - From the seventh to the eleventh grade, I was actively involved in a program known as "SPURS," which gives older girl scouts like myself the chance to care for the 43 horses at a local girl scout camp. Not only did we devote several weekends throughout the year to feeding, grooming, medicating, saddling, cleaning after and exercising these horses, but we were given the opportunity to teach the younger girls how to ride, using the skills that we ourselves are taught in private lessons and, meanwhile, building new skills in leadership and dealing with the public.
CIT - In addition to SPURS, which took place during the school year, I spent summers at the same camp as a CIT, or Councilor in Training. This, like SPURS, was an unpaid position, with the rather large dissimilarity that I spent as much time with the girls as I did with the horses. On some weeks I was taken from the barn entirely, and reassigned solely as the caretaker for my group of children. After three summers and approximately 720 young girls, I can assure you that I have become a patient and responsible person.
Silver Award - In the summer of my sophomore year, I made made the decision to strive for the highest award a girl scout my age could achieve: the Silver Award. Few people know what the Silver Award is, of course; basically, it's the girl scout equivalent of the boy scout Eagle Scout award. To earn your Eagle Scout, you need to organize and carry out one community service project. The requirements are very much the same for the Silver Award. For my personal project, because I was interested in veterinary medicine at the time, I collected items for the Texas Wildlife Rehabilitation Coalition. After advertising door-to-door with flyers explaining who I was and what I was trying to achieve, I made two rounds to pick up items left on porches. In the end, I ended up donating about two thousand beds, feeders, materials for bedding, blankets, baby bottles, and other such things that the shelter was lacking and desperately needed. My donations, needless to say, were greatly appreciated. After meeting the animals who I'd helped, I knew that my hard work had not been for nothing.