Senior Spotlight: Ryo Lindsey (12-2)
Laura Shin (12-3)
What are you looking forward to at college? (Ryo is going to UPenn).
Definitely freedom with my studies. I want to get a quality education but at the same time have fun during college, because I think it’s also about meeting new people from around the world. And just having a good time. I’m going to be living in a dorm at college, which I guess is the first step to learning how to live on your own. Definitely looking forward to that.
Favorite memory from senior year?
Towards the end of the year, being able to see my friends at events like book pickups, or the senior launch party, or doing interviews for the senior video was really fun. Even just being in class this/last year was kind of memorable. I don’t know if I learned as much because of Covid, but I tried, and I think that effort means something in this year of uncertainty.
You play a lot of sports at Masterman. Which has been your favorite one to participate in and why?
I feel like my favorite was swimming, because most of my friends were on the team, and it was nice being able to spend time with them at the pool. We tried our best during practices, and I feel like all that hard work paid off when we beat all these big schools and won the Public League Championship. It was a really proud moment that we prevailed at the end. I also want to give a shoutout to the running team; I wasn’t officially on it, but I felt like I was. I’d also say that I’m the president of the unofficial cycling team at Masterman, if that counts.
Photo courtesy of Ryo Lindsey (12-2)
You also worked at Biomeme! Tell me about your experience working in a lab, especially during a pandemic.
It was definitely an eye-opening experience. I wasn’t exactly doing the research behind the products of Biomeme, but I was manufacturing the products, and at the same time I kind of learned the mechanisms behind this biotech company and how the products work towards determining if a patient has Covid. That was very interesting, because before this I wasn’t really exposed to the field of biotechnology, and it was a really rewarding experience to be around all of these smart scientists and engineers. I hope I can continue interning there and learn more about the company.
If you could give one piece of advice to your freshman self, what would it be?
I remember struggling a little bit when I came into Masterman High School. I got a couple Bs freshman year, and I thought it was the end of the world. But in the grand scheme of things, nobody cared about that B. I don’t even care about that B at this point. I would say, don’t stress so much over grades, because school is so much more than just the marks you get in classes. And even if you get a B, if you learned something from that class, then it’s valuable. I think that’s something that incoming freshmen or really anybody should know.
Biggest Masterman pet peeve?
It was funny how the salads were always questionable… they’ve got to up their game in the lunch sector.
Cats or dogs?
I like dogs, actually. I just feel like I vibe more with dogs. I think cats would just scratch me, which they do, and whenever I eat something around cats they always swarm me.
If you could be any fictional character for one day, who would you be and why?
I would want to be Percy Jackson for one day, you know, fighting the three-headed dog in the underworld or going to Camp Half-Blood. It would be fun, because I’m all about adventure-type things.
What would you like to see change at Masterman?
The environment is definitely one thing that I’d want to change. I guess it can be a healthy one at times, but it can also be overwhelming for some students, especially when you’re so young. Pushing yourself is important, but there comes a point where you don’t want to push yourself that hard and be so burdened all the time. The transition from middle school to high school was definitely hard too, because in middle school I was thinking, “I need to get all As, I need to get all As to get into the high school”, and then in high school, “I need to get all As to get into college”. So sometimes I wonder, did I really learn anything by doing this assignment if I was just thinking about the grade?