March's Student of the Month: Elizabeth Deards
Danielle C. Mamaril
Knightly News
Elizabeth Deards
Elizabeth Deards, the student of the month, doesn’t just have a smile that lightens up any room but also manages to juggle various extracurriculars along with her heavy workload. Elizabeth is a sophomore involved in many advanced classes like anatomy, integrated math 3, and many others.
Growing up, Elizabeth lived all her live in the Vacaville library. In fact, her mother would punish her by taking her books away. Although, Elizabeth engrossed herself in books and the fictional characters inspired the young girl to take on a heroic view.
In her freshmen year of Buckingham, she already took great care about her grades. Although anyone can admit that going into freshmen year necessarily knows what they’re doing. She commented on this as she was confused when first starting in robotics club. Luckily, she fell naturally into the fabrication team.
Currently as a sophomore, she is in varsity soccer and softball. She is a loyal member of the robotics club. Although she doesn’t work for a company, she works with private clients tutoring and providing child care. All the meanwhile, she takes a heavy course load is involved in community service outside of school. Despite all of the following, she still manages to keep a 4.06 gpa and find time to maintain a good relationship with her mother. Although no one is perfect, Elizabeth is honest in her endeavors. She’s struggled with anxiety from seven years old through today, although now she has learned to manage her illness. Like many other high schoolers, she fears the future as it involves getting a job and applying for colleges. In fact, Elizabeth Deards the supposed queen of juggling, has a debilitating fear of public speaking. She discussed, rather reluctantly, that in 3rd grade her teacher didn’t allow her to bring flashcards up and she bursted out crying which was how that fear originated.
She discussed how she manages to get work done. A favored technique is telling her mother to “metaphorically sit on my back.” The translation for normal people would be that she does her work in front of her mother so if she gets off-task, her mother could easily swat her hand. It’s proven quite effective for Lizzy. Another way she organizes her time is by looking over her week by a whole and planning out what games she has, her club meetings, doing homework, along with carving out time for her to destress.
Next year, she plans to take about four AP classes and her current extracurriculars which still hopes to survive the ordeal. She takes a dark humor on the amount of pressure she puts on herself. She’s claimed that by the end of next year, she’ll be in the hospital due to stress. It proves to show that even the dark times, Elizabeth still proves to see a humorous view of her situation as she tries to maintain her optimism.
Farther and later in life, she hopes to go to the Air Force Academy partly due to financial circumstances. Although Elizabeth has dreams of saving lives, she also manages to think practically about her future which is an admirable trait.
Elizabeth’s life philosophy was inspired by her mother. She shares that her mother doesn't make much money but despite it all, her mother still loves to teach more than anything in the world. Her mother's passion has inspired Elizabeth to find a passion in medicine. Elizabeth gives some parting advice: one should not go into a career field simply for the money but more rather the passion.
Knightly News
Elizabeth Deards
Elizabeth Deards, the student of the month, doesn’t just have a smile that lightens up any room but also manages to juggle various extracurriculars along with her heavy workload. Elizabeth is a sophomore involved in many advanced classes like anatomy, integrated math 3, and many others.
Growing up, Elizabeth lived all her live in the Vacaville library. In fact, her mother would punish her by taking her books away. Although, Elizabeth engrossed herself in books and the fictional characters inspired the young girl to take on a heroic view.
In her freshmen year of Buckingham, she already took great care about her grades. Although anyone can admit that going into freshmen year necessarily knows what they’re doing. She commented on this as she was confused when first starting in robotics club. Luckily, she fell naturally into the fabrication team.
Currently as a sophomore, she is in varsity soccer and softball. She is a loyal member of the robotics club. Although she doesn’t work for a company, she works with private clients tutoring and providing child care. All the meanwhile, she takes a heavy course load is involved in community service outside of school. Despite all of the following, she still manages to keep a 4.06 gpa and find time to maintain a good relationship with her mother. Although no one is perfect, Elizabeth is honest in her endeavors. She’s struggled with anxiety from seven years old through today, although now she has learned to manage her illness. Like many other high schoolers, she fears the future as it involves getting a job and applying for colleges. In fact, Elizabeth Deards the supposed queen of juggling, has a debilitating fear of public speaking. She discussed, rather reluctantly, that in 3rd grade her teacher didn’t allow her to bring flashcards up and she bursted out crying which was how that fear originated.
She discussed how she manages to get work done. A favored technique is telling her mother to “metaphorically sit on my back.” The translation for normal people would be that she does her work in front of her mother so if she gets off-task, her mother could easily swat her hand. It’s proven quite effective for Lizzy. Another way she organizes her time is by looking over her week by a whole and planning out what games she has, her club meetings, doing homework, along with carving out time for her to destress.
Next year, she plans to take about four AP classes and her current extracurriculars which still hopes to survive the ordeal. She takes a dark humor on the amount of pressure she puts on herself. She’s claimed that by the end of next year, she’ll be in the hospital due to stress. It proves to show that even the dark times, Elizabeth still proves to see a humorous view of her situation as she tries to maintain her optimism.
Farther and later in life, she hopes to go to the Air Force Academy partly due to financial circumstances. Although Elizabeth has dreams of saving lives, she also manages to think practically about her future which is an admirable trait.
Elizabeth’s life philosophy was inspired by her mother. She shares that her mother doesn't make much money but despite it all, her mother still loves to teach more than anything in the world. Her mother's passion has inspired Elizabeth to find a passion in medicine. Elizabeth gives some parting advice: one should not go into a career field simply for the money but more rather the passion.
November's Student of the Month: Natalie Mifflin
Patrick Fletcher
Knightly News
Natalie Mifflin
On November 3rd, in the middle of fifth period, every class went to the gym for a production of 21 Chump Street, a fifteen-minute musical written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, most known for creating the musical Hamilton. Based on an episode of the radio program “This American Life” called “What I did for Love”, the musical is about a high-school student selling drugs to an undercover police officer in order to win her affection. The production was a success among the student body, with discussions about it popping up for the rest of the day. So, the first unofficial “Student of the Month Award” goes to Natalie Mifflin, the one who the made the production possible.
On November 13th, I interviewed Natalie during lunch. I started with a question asking for general information. She responded by saying that she is a senior who has been involved in theater for four years. She also said she hates general questions, which has nothing to do with the interview, I just thought it was funny. The second question was a fairly obvious one: why she put the play on. Apparently, Natalie was internet-stalking Lin-Manuel Miranda (her words, not mine) and found the musical on YouTube. She felt that the way the play presented the topic in an entertaining way would be perfect for the approaching Red Ribbon Week. In addition, it would look good on her senior portfolio and could get people interested in theater. My next question inquired as to how she found actors. It turns out that Natalie originally wanted her friends to act in the play with her, but they couldn’t due to complications. Luckily, several people overheard the request for actors and asked for more information. She also found actors by asking the cross-country team. The next questions asked about her favorite and least favorite parts of putting the play on. Natalie’s favorite part was getting to direct and meet new people. Her least favorite part was getting the rights to perform the musical and use the songs. It took a long time and made scheduling a nightmare. She said that the play had to be rescheduled four times because of it! As the interview concluded and Natalie left, I thought to myself, “why did I, an antisocial, decide to write an article that involved an interview?”
In all seriousness, I do congratulate Natalie with her work done on getting the play together. It must not have been easy getting everyone together to practice, especially with the scheduling problems. I hope that she continues her work on theater, and that maybe we’ll see something like this at our school again.
Patrick Fletcher, Knightly News
Knightly News
Natalie Mifflin
On November 3rd, in the middle of fifth period, every class went to the gym for a production of 21 Chump Street, a fifteen-minute musical written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, most known for creating the musical Hamilton. Based on an episode of the radio program “This American Life” called “What I did for Love”, the musical is about a high-school student selling drugs to an undercover police officer in order to win her affection. The production was a success among the student body, with discussions about it popping up for the rest of the day. So, the first unofficial “Student of the Month Award” goes to Natalie Mifflin, the one who the made the production possible.
On November 13th, I interviewed Natalie during lunch. I started with a question asking for general information. She responded by saying that she is a senior who has been involved in theater for four years. She also said she hates general questions, which has nothing to do with the interview, I just thought it was funny. The second question was a fairly obvious one: why she put the play on. Apparently, Natalie was internet-stalking Lin-Manuel Miranda (her words, not mine) and found the musical on YouTube. She felt that the way the play presented the topic in an entertaining way would be perfect for the approaching Red Ribbon Week. In addition, it would look good on her senior portfolio and could get people interested in theater. My next question inquired as to how she found actors. It turns out that Natalie originally wanted her friends to act in the play with her, but they couldn’t due to complications. Luckily, several people overheard the request for actors and asked for more information. She also found actors by asking the cross-country team. The next questions asked about her favorite and least favorite parts of putting the play on. Natalie’s favorite part was getting to direct and meet new people. Her least favorite part was getting the rights to perform the musical and use the songs. It took a long time and made scheduling a nightmare. She said that the play had to be rescheduled four times because of it! As the interview concluded and Natalie left, I thought to myself, “why did I, an antisocial, decide to write an article that involved an interview?”
In all seriousness, I do congratulate Natalie with her work done on getting the play together. It must not have been easy getting everyone together to practice, especially with the scheduling problems. I hope that she continues her work on theater, and that maybe we’ll see something like this at our school again.
Patrick Fletcher, Knightly News