Anika Sekar has worked diligently since her freshman year to become Wayne Valley’s valedictorian. To achieve her goal, she took multiple Honors and AP courses each year, all while managing to balance her school and social life. Over the years at Wayne Valley, Sekar has become extremely involved in not only academics, but sports and clubs. Currently, she is the President of the National Honor Society and Editor-in-Chief for Smoke Signals. She is also involved with student council, SDA, track, cross country, and Model UN. Now, how did Sekar manage to be valedictorian and balance all of her extracurriculars? The answer: time management.
While many of us joke that we suffer from the dreaded senioritis early in high school, this burnout can be prevented. For example, Sekar makes sure she does an activity unrelated to school every weekend, such as meeting up with friends. Sekar adds, “The time I spent with my friends includes most of my favorite memories from high school.” After all, academics and learning is important, but so is maintaining strong relationships.
Moreover, to make her already hectic high school experience manageable, Sekar always speaks to upperclassmen before she picks classes for her schedule. This way, Sekar made sure she could handle the workload. Out of all of the classes Sekar took, she reveals that APUSH II with Mr. Caroll was her favorite. “I loved everything about that class–the people, everything I learned, and how funny Mr. Carroll made our classes,” she elaborates.
Although Sekar might seem superhuman, she admits she struggled at times with the college application process, specifically with her essays. “I ended up procrastinating some of them and had to rush to finish them in the last few days before the deadline,” she comments. To make the application process as painless as possible, Sekar recommends starting the Common App questions early when they come out in August. In her experience, these questions were easier than the essays, and she got them done at a faster rate. Sekar also recommends starting essays earlier, especially if you plan to apply to many colleges.
As her time at Wayne Valley nears the end, Sekar is heading to Princeton to major in either History or Economics on the pre-law track. Her ultimate goal is to become a corporate lawyer, possibly living in New York. Sekar explains, “I’m really looking forward to meeting my new classmates at Princeton and taking advantage of all their resources.” Good luck and congratulations, Anika!
