9th Grade   2023

For my Genius Project, I decided to explore how art could affect mental health after using time to paint a huge canvas over a span of 10 weeks. On days we were allowed work time on our project, I would go downstairs to the art room and paint. I would often reflect what I was feeling during the time, or events happening in my life in the kinds of paintings I did. I took a lot of inspiration from nature because I sat by a window when I was painting. This project  reflects the communicating ideas pillar because I was using art to communicate my feelings about how my life was during the project.

This project also reflects the taking action pillar of JAGS because I used my time to not only explore how this art project would affect my mental health, but apply it to a presentation where I could help other kids express their emotions through art. With the information that I learned during the genius project, I was able to recommend art therapy to a number of students that were struggling with mental health.

During my trip to Heifer, Maryland, I learned both a lot about myself and a lot about my peers. I was able to form strong bonds with people I had only met briefly before, and taught myself that I was capable of working with new people. I formed relationships with my teachers that are going to last for all my years at Jackson High School. This trip represents the communicating ideas pillar of Jags because in the simulation we had to live as if we were immigrants from other countries, we had to really put ourselves in the shoes of these people.

While doing this, we learned firsthand what the life of an immigrant was like, as well as how important it is to work with each other. Leaving Maryland, I had incredibly strong bonds with my friends. I think that this was the perfect way to end my first year at JAGS: in a way that helped me learn about other cultures as well as learn about myself.

White Christmas Performance, Semester 1, 2022

Director: Mrs. Rissler

My involvement in the musical White Christmas at Jackson high school was my first show with Jackson. I can confidently say that through this experience I formed many long-lasting relationships and learned so many things to help me develop my acting experience. Playing a lead role in this show was a daunting responsibility, but I was able to tackle it through the help of fabulous directors and amazing cast members.

White Christmas helped me take on the communicating ideas pillar of JAGS, as it was incredibly important for me to use my voice to help other people feel as if they were in the shoes of the person I was performing as. The role of public speaking in theater is very significant, and this experience helps me grow my public speaking skills to be able to communicate ideas effectively to many people in the future.

Choosing Chinese as my language for Jags was not only a way for me to reconnect with my culture, but for me to learn a language in order to communicate with many people in my life. With some background experience in Chinese, learning the language wasn't as difficult academically. Instead, I faced setbacks in terms of confidence in the classroom, scared that my Chinese wasn't as up to par as it used to be. overcoming this fear was essential to my success in this class.

This class helped me recognize the recognizing perspectives pillar of jags, as I dedicated an hour every single day to learning about another culture. With the help of an amazing teacher, I was able to learn many things about the language, which is exemplified in my “My Daily Life”  project. This project was an accumulation of many of the things that I learned this year, and helped me reflect on how far I've come. 

My Summit night presentation was one of two major projects I put together for JAGS my freshman year. This project allowed me to look into the economic and cultural sides of different countries. This helped me incorporate the investigating the world JAGS pillar as I was doing research with my peers about many different parts of the world.

Being able to compare and contrast different cultures both economically and socially was very interesting and it was the first project that I was able to take my own initiative on in regards to what I wanted to research. This intellectual freedom helped me develop a project that I was truly passionate about and could present to others in a meaningful way.