Sylvania Northview High School
A running record of every course, exam, and activity that's shaped how I think with context on what each actually taught me.
College Board
AP Exams
Completed · May 2024
Taken at the end of freshman year. The exam rewards the kind of comparative, pattern-spotting thinking I find natural — not raw memorization, but understanding how civilizations rise, trade, collapse, and repeat.
Scheduled · May 2025
The exam component of the AP Capstone program. Covers research methodology, argument construction, and cross-disciplinary synthesis. Pairs with AP Research junior year to complete the Capstone diploma.
Scheduled · May 2025
The sequel to APWH in scope, now focused on the American story from colonization through the modern era. Heavy emphasis on document analysis and argumentation — skills I've been building in journalism and debate.
Standardized Tests
Completed · Fall 2024
Taken freshman year essentially on a whim — no prep, just curiosity. A useful baseline. Will retake fall of junior year with more intentional preparation behind it.
Planned · Fall 2026
A deliberate second attempt with preparation. Targeting a score competitive for National Merit Scholarship consideration.
Planned · Spring/Fall 2027
The principal college admissions exam. Will approach with full preparation and likely multiple sittings to maximize the score heading into senior year applications.
Planned · 2027
Will determine whether the SAT or ACT plays better to my strengths through practice testing, then commit to whichever fits better for admissions.
Coursework
The first half of the AP Capstone diploma program. Taught me how to actually evaluate a source — not just cite it, but interrogate it. Heavy emphasis on argument structure, research ethics, and presenting complex ideas across multiple mediums. Probably the most transferable academic skill I've developed so far.
An in-depth examination of the American story from colonization through contemporary history. Strong focus on primary source analysis and the construction of evidence-based historical arguments — a natural extension of the comparative thinking I built in APWH. The document-based questions in particular are great practice for exactly how I already approach problems.
Polynomial, rational, exponential, and logarithmic functions alongside complex numbers and conic sections. The first math course where I've really had to sit with abstraction rather than reach for a formula — useful, even when uncomfortable.
Cellular biology, genetics, evolution, ecology, and the molecular mechanisms underlying life. Brought rigor to intuitions I'd already developed from years of environmental observation — the SKYWARN work and meteophotography gave me a head start on thinking systematically about natural systems.
Literature analysis, argumentative writing, and rhetorical strategies. Good at building precision in writing — important given how much of my other work depends on saying exactly what I mean, no more.
Production of The Student Prints, Northview's school newspaper. I hold the News Editor role this year. Covers reporting, interviewing, editorial judgment, layout, and publication ethics — all applied in real time against real deadlines.
Advanced grammar, composition, and conversation in Spanish. The third year of a sequence I started in middle school — by this point the focus has shifted from mechanics to expression, which is where language gets genuinely interesting.
Academic support for an AP U.S. Government & Politics course — grading, note-taking, and classroom engagement. I created and maintained reference notes for the class and helped sustain discussion when student participation flagged. Peer leadership and genuine attentiveness to the subject matter made the role feel less like an aide position and more like an unofficial co-teacher.
Civilizations, trade networks, revolutions, and global systems from 1200 CE to the present. The exam score (a 5) reflects what I found most useful about the course: it rewards pattern recognition and comparative thinking far more than rote recall. A strong conceptual foundation for everything in APUSH and beyond.
Introduced the design thinking cycle — problem scoping, iterative prototyping, and structured critique. Valuable less for any specific skill than for the habit of treating failure as information rather than verdict. Followed by Engineering Applications the next semester.
Applied engineering principles with more emphasis on execution and real-world constraints — budgets, tolerances, material limitations. The practical complement to Engineering Design's theoretical framing.
Foundational literary analysis and composition at the honors level. The course where I had my first major run-in with the district's AI detection system — which, suffice it to say, produced a much more interesting education than the syllabus alone.
Formal proofs, coordinate geometry, and spatial reasoning at an accelerated pace. Proof-writing specifically was good training in structured argumentation — the logical skeleton of a geometry proof isn't all that different from an op-ed.
Mechanics, thermodynamics, waves, and introductory chemistry. A broad survey that built the quantitative foundations I'll draw on more heavily in AP Physics junior year.
Introduction to reporting, interviewing, and publication workflow. This is where I started contributing to The Student Prints — and where I quickly learned that the most interesting stories aren't the ones assigned to you.
Continuation of the Spanish sequence. Solidified grammar and expanded vocabulary before transitioning into the Honors track for Spanish III.
Academic support for an AP U.S. Government & Politics course — grading, note-taking, and classroom engagement. I created and maintained reference notes for the class and helped sustain discussion when student participation flagged. Peer leadership and genuine attentiveness to the subject matter made the role feel less like an aide position and more like an unofficial co-teacher.
Early Credit
Completed during middle school for high school credit — the first step into honors-level mathematics and the accelerated math sequence that continues through Calculus BC senior year.
The foundation of a Spanish sequence that I've carried through high school into Honors Spanish III. Starting early gave me a meaningful head start on the grammar and vocabulary the later courses build on.
Planned
Junior and senior schedules are subject to change, but this is the plan as it currently stands. Courses are listed in no particular order of priority — just the full slate.
2026–2027
2027–2028
Activities
Competing since 6th grade across both middle school (Division B) and high school (Division C). Science Olympiad is where I learned that expertise in a niche — geology, meteorology, astronomy — compounds over years rather than sprinting before tournaments. I've also taken on a builder role for the team: maintaining the official website, designing annual yearbooks, and keeping a real record of what these teams actually accomplish.
Active since middle school, with a focus on the categories that naturally accumulated from years of other interests: astronomy, geoscience, history, and geography. There's something satisfying about a competition that rewards depth of curiosity rather than breadth of cramming.
Joined after the AI detection experience gave me something urgent to argue — and stayed because I was genuinely good at it. International Extemporaneous Speaking (IX) rewards the same habits I rely on everywhere else: reading widely, thinking on short notice, and making a case that holds up under pressure. The jump to United States Extemporaneous (USX) added domestic policy depth I now apply to editorial work.
Elected representative twice. The role appeals for the same reason journalism does: a direct line between noticing a problem and having standing to do something about it. Organized and led business-partnered fundraisers that generated over $100/hour toward class initiatives — practical evidence that institutional change doesn't require institutional seniority.
Actively training and competing in local meets since 2024. A useful counterweight to everything else — progress is entirely quantifiable, there's no arguing with the bar, and the discipline required translates quietly into everything else I do.