Written by Simranpreet Kaur, Staff Writer
Known for her kindness, smarts, and energy, Caterina is ready to move on to college.
Caterina is a fellow Student here at Poly High School and is also a pillar in a lot of the happenings that go on here at school. Caterina is eighteen years old and an upcoming graduating senior. She is a super sweet and kind person, loving friend, and overall high achieving intellectual student who enjoys reading, playing tennis, studying things that catch her interest, and going on walks.
She is a very active person who loves exercise and finds it to be very healing. She also loves learning, reading books that can range from history all the way to romance. She enjoys learning new things and having fun with what she is pursuing, always making the light out of any situation she’s in. Caterina is going to be very missed when she leaves for university soon, but before she steps out in a cap and gown, let’s go over her personal experience here at Poly High School.
Caterina holds a few critical positions here at Poly. She plays Varsity in the Girls Tennis team, and she is also the Vice President of French Honors Society. She’s dabbled in many of our other clubs as well, including the Interact Club and Paws for a Cause. Her freshman year she said was nerve wracking, at first joking that she was at the “bottom of the food chain” but emphasizes that it was pretty easy to find a place for yourself, to hopefully ease freshman concern.
She reflects that she learned quite a lot during this time and even offers some advice to the incoming freshman class. She recommends “surrounding yourself with good people” and to “not be nervous” just “go through it day by day.” Caterina’s advice is symbolic of who she is, a caring, always there for you type of person who values taking time and bettering yourself with those who surround you. She also gives her advice to incoming seniors, telling the junior class to do their best right now but continue that hard work through senior year, and to try to avoid getting senioritis even though the second semester will feel long.
Caterina shares that her overall high school experience was pretty good, and that she especially values the teachers she met that helped her actively learn. However, she does hint with a bit of mock-bitterness to those who did not do such a good job connecting with students. In all seriousness though Caterina believes that her time here was filled with learning about compromise and adjustment to what the high school experience is, but that it was a great time where she met incredible people, life-long friends, and was able to make impactful connections with some of her teachers that mean a lot to her.
Most notably Mr. Schiller, AP Chemistry and Honors Chemistry teacher , and Madame Kund, French teacher, she explains that Mr. Schiller taught her how to adopt a good work ethic and through his passion for teaching was able to inspire her and also cultivate her own passion in the sciences. Madame Kund, she recalls, was able to open up a whole new world for her in terms of traveling and getting to learn about different cultures. So much so in fact that if she was given the opportunity she claims that she would take her French class all over again, and is currently taking AP French as a result of having such a wonderful experience.
Caterina is wrapping up her final weeks left here at Poly, and unsurprisingly her future is looking very bright, full of upcoming success. She is now officially committed to none other than one of the many great UC’s in California, UCR! This is a great success, and on behalf of everyone at Poly we are all very proud of Caterina’s immense hard work and her achievements throughout her years on campus. She plans on going into the neuroscience field, with the goal to get her bachelors in neuroscience with a future career as a psychologist. Caterina is a driven, passionate, and incredibly kind individual, she will be greatly missed and we are certain that she will be going amazing places.