About Me

My name is Madison Anna Bush, and I was born in Manhattan, New York. When I turned five, my family moved to Georgia, and in second grade, my mom enrolled me at Carrollton City Schools. I graduated 4th in my class of 400 with Carrollton High School’s class of 2020, and I am now attending the Honors College at Georgia State University. My mother, Nichole Chetti-Bush, is an English teacher at CHS, and my father, Shell Bush, teaches Science at Georgia Cyber Academy. I also have a younger sister named Zooey who is a senior at CHS.

Exercising, reading, learning, and being involved in extracurricular activities are tremendous passions of mine. Volleyball was an important constant in my life for six years. I was on the ninth grade volleyball team at CHS when I was in eighth grade, and in ninth and tenth grade, I was on the JV volleyball team. Upon becoming a junior, I entered into the rigorous International Baccalaureate Program, and due to wanting to focus more heavily on my work, I decided to hold off on playing and instead became the varsity volleyball manager to better control my schedule; I lettered as a varsity athlete at the end of the season. To this day, I still believe it was one of my best decisions because of my love for the classmates and teachers within the program and the incredible discussion and learning we did. For more information about my incredible time in IB, please see the next page of this site (IB is so paramount to me that it deserves its very own page as all I have to say wouldn’t even fit in this section).

I also believe strongly in the power of training one's body through healthy exercise and discipline. I love to run, swim, lift weights, and perform aerobic and anaerobic exercises. My whole family has always been involved in running, and we go to Florida for road-races, run by our Track Shack relatives, throughout the year. I am a certified lifeguard with Ellis & Associates and am also involved in target archery as I diligently train to gain strength for all my athletics. Waterfall chasing, rock climbing, and mountain exploring are some of my favorite things in the world that I couldn't do without my family or strength. I’m also a major roller coaster adrenaline junkie who loves reaching new heights and speeds on crazy rides; I have ridden every roller coaster at Six Flags Over Georgia, from the smooth steel to the rough wooden and all the twisting, turning upside-downers, standing-uppers, leg-danglers, and steep-droppers in both the light and dark.

I was also a part of my high school’s Performing Arts program and am a strong supporter of the local Cultural Arts Center where my mother and sister actively perform; as an Honor Thespian, I watched and helped with many plays and other performances over the years. I take delight in participating in theater and chorus, having been involved in the play Epic Fail, a Madrigal Dinner, the February Show, Festival, a Christmas Concert, Sister Act, the 2020 Black History Month Performance, the 2020 Digital Showcase, music theory, and two years of IB Music in which I created a Musical Links Investigation between the distinct music cultures of Turkish and American Pop. My favorite artists include Cage the Elephant, BØRNS, The Cab, Fall Out Boy, Florence + the Machine, Imagine Dragons, The Neighbourhood, Panic! At The Disco, Sıla, Tarkan, Twenty One Pilots, The Beatles, and many more.

I am a very adamant reader and love to collect a variety of novels. I read many fantasy, romance, supernatural, and thriller young adult novels. Some of my favorite books include the Throne of Glass Series, the A Court of Thorns and Roses Series, the Mara Dyer Series, the Shatter Me Series, The Bargainer Series, the Hush, Hush Series, and the Mortal Instruments Series. I also love The Catcher in the Rye, The Lords of Discipline, Season of Migration to the North, and The Stranger. My favorite authors include Sarah J. Maas and Becca Fitzpatrick. I am very passionate about reading, for it has helped me to grow as a person and develop the important traits of loyalty, integrity, compassion, and dedication. As well as being a strong Bibliophile within the realm of reading, I am a major Cinephile of all genres; I love film and am quite interested in its role with English studies. Some of my favorite TV series include American Horror Story, True Blood, Game of Thrones, Dexter, Teen Wolf, The 100, Westworld, The Vampire Diaries, Black Mirror, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Supernatural, Ozark, Gilmore Girls, Gossip Girl, The Magicians, Hunters, Attack on Titan, Berserk, Akame ga Kill!, Death Note, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, and Hemlock Grove. Movies I adore include Parasite, Joker, American Beauty, Bohemian Rhapsody, Once Upon A Time...In Hollywood, The Disaster Artist, Just Go With It, Charlie’s Angels, Aquamarine, Pulp Fiction, True Romance, Isle of Dogs, Lady Bird, Crawl, Hoot, The Royal Tenenbaums, Thelma & Louise, Heathers, Scream, This Is The End, Beastly, Fear, Wild At Heart, The Departed, and many more. These works inspire me in thought, voice, and action.

School is paramount in my life, and I aspire to learn many different and great things while being well-rounded and open-minded. I am set to graduate from GSU in the Spring 2024 commencement with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology within the College of Arts and Sciences. I am interested in sociology, especially in terms of family dynamics, and I have a focus in education as I plan to pursue my masters to work with the mental health of our developing youth and to encourage an advanced academic journey for all types of students. That being said, I was just recently accepted into the GSU School Psychology M.Ed./Ed.S. Program for their Fall 2024 cohort! I have an undergraduate GPA of 4.20 (HOPE GPA 4.00) and am in good academic standing. In high school, I participated in National Honor Society, Spanish National Honor Society, Tri-M Music Honor Society, National Beta Club, Key Club, the Friends of Rachel Equality and Acceptance Club, International Thespian Society, Outdoors Club, Spanish Club, Film Club, and Book Club throughout the years. I was the President of Friends of Rachel my junior and senior year. Through my IB CAS Project, "Blind Date with a Book," I raised $340 for the Ferst Foundation, inspiring me even more as I witnessed such an impact on my community; I want to be part of the movement encouraging literacy and education (See my CAS Blog at the link below for more details). With these clubs and the projects I was part of, I served our school and community, doing whatever I could to help spread knowledge and awareness. I tried to participate in any event possible, making it a priority in my future plans to help pull back the mask of ignorance and make a change while growing into a more compassionate and sincere person. 

In college, I have been Secretary of the GSU Honors Student Organization (HSO), and an officer in the nonprofit organization known as the Women’s Global Empowerment Fund (WGEF), as well as a member of the Honors LLC and Film Club. I have served as a peer mentor for IDEAL (Inclusive Digital Expression and Literacy), an Inclusive Post-Secondary Education (IPSE) program at GSU for students with mild intellectual disabilities, helping with reading/writing, technology, transportation, life/interpersonal skills, and social/emotional regulation. I was invited to lead and act as a guest speaker for the GSU Honors “College Transition Night” discussion panel to provide insight into the academic and social workings of our campus to encourage juniors and seniors at the local high school to look into GSU. I have worked with HSO to plan and host a "Welcome Bingo Social!," Honors College inductions, class registration workshops, an "Autumn Academia" study session, honors student movie nights, a Valentine's Day game night, an "April Pool's Day!" recreation center event at the pool, the Honors College Mural, and other initiatives, such as the Chick-fil-A Breakfast and Boba Bash during finals week, to help our fellow students succeed both personally and socially in their present and future. Through the Honors College, I have gotten to work closely with Atlanta youth in our volunteer Tutoring Pipeline Program with Cristo Rey Atlanta Jesuit High School and Centennial Academy in which I have tutored in English and Psychology, emphasizing writing skills and communication strategies via individualized learning plans. With this, I was able to partner with the tutoring program to lead a four day literary workshop for Centennial Academy elementary/middle schoolers in which we created detailed lesson plans to share with the administration and succinct flow-sheets for the students to complete while following along. My workshop committee and I are committed to helping discuss and analyze both fictional and non-fictional Lexile-appropriate short stories with participants, going over the structure and function of a story, so students can grow in their reading/writing skills. I have also worked for the 21st Century Community Learning Centers (CCLC) known as “Trojan University” for Carrollton City Schools, tutoring General and Special Ed. 6th through 9th graders from disadvantaged communities, as well as those with histories of communication difficulties, behavioral issues, and academic underperformance; the program works with adolescents to improve academic studies, emphasizing math, reading, and writing. 

I have received many awards and scholarships for my achievements over the years. In fifth grade, I was the school’s first place winner of the Why I am Proud to be an American Essay Contest for Sertoma National Heritage, and I got first place in my class for The Badge Essay Contest. In ninth grade, I won the title of Honorable Mention in the Laws of Life Essay Contest, and I received the Department Award for Pre-AP Literature and Composition. In tenth grade, I received another Department Award, this time for AP Language/American Literature. Junior year, I received the IB Spanish Department Award, the Wellesley College Book Award, the Georgia Certificate of Merit Award, and the Presbyterian College Junior Fellow Scholar Award. I was also honored as a Junior Honor Marshal for being in the top 5% of my class. Senior year, I was chosen as the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program School Representative and was honored in our Homecoming parade and football game as a Sweetheart. I was the 2020 Georgia Rotary Clubs Laws of Life Essay Contest School and Grade Winner at CHS, with my essay being chosen as one of the seventeen State Finalists picked from the 43,506 essays submitted from all over Georgia. I also won the Union City Elks Lodge First Place Scholarship, the CHS Alumni Scholarship, the Joseph B. McGinnis, Sr. Memorial Scholarship, and the 2020 Plantation Women’s Club Scholarship. At my very last CHS Honors Night in 2020 (that had to be virtual due to the pandemic), I received the IB Biology Department Award and the IB Music Department Award as well as all my honor cords, tassels, and stoles for all my clubs; I also was presented with my fourth and final Academic Letter Plaque. From the various universities that wanted me, I was offered the Georgia State University Achievement Scholarship, the Oglethorpe University Annual Merit Award, the Presbyterian College Annual Academic Scholarship, the Presbyterian College Annual Fellow Scholarship, a Presbyterian College Grant, the Mercer University Annual Academic Merit Scholarship, the Mercer University Partners Scholarship, the Berry College Annual Academic Scholarship, a Berry College Grant from Alumni & Friends, a Wofford College Grant, and the Wofford College Annual Old Main Scholarship. I was selected as a Student of the Month each year of high school and maintained all A's and a 103.643 cumulative GPA throughout the years, collecting all four Academic Letters. At my socially distanced graduation ceremony that was pushed to June 1, 2020, I was the only one in my whole graduating class to receive the Georgia Seal of Biliteracy due to succeeding in all of my required English language arts and due to passing my IB Spanish Exam with a score of 5 or higher. Before leaving for college, I found out I had achieved my goals and was awarded the IB Diploma, earning college credit for every IB class I attempted with high-reaching marks! Now, I have made the Georgia State University President's List for Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, and Fall 2023. I strive to keep improving and achieving as I grow, and I am so thankful for the challenging, yet rewarding, programs and activities that helped me to graduate at the top of my class with both a high school and IB Diploma, to surpass limitations, and to look forward to all that’s to come here at university and beyond. 

I care very much for my family, friends, education, and health, and I believe strongly in taking part in new academics, athletics, and arts.