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Career-wise, high school experiences only matter so far as they get you into college. However, I would like to remember mine as more than that, considering that they shaped my attitudes toward adversity and success.

As such, here follows a brief account of my high school activities. Much is left out here–such as winning Best Cursive Handwriting in New York State in 2006, and a hundred other awards from earlier ages–but I imagine that this is as far back as anyone may care to read about.

Varsity Tennis

I am proud to have been on an incredible team from 2011 to 2015 that saw Marcellus’ first regional win in 25 years. I also received Scholar Athlete status for every season played, competed to success in two tournaments, and won Most Improved my first season. From doubles to singles, from below-freezing tournament weather to sweltering summer practices, the experience was unforgettable and solidified some true friendships as well as my personal values of perseverance and graciousness.

National Spanish Exam

I competed twice as a high school student, winning first a bronze medal and then honorable mention. Both are something to be extremely proud of, given the sheer number of students who compete nation-wide and the relatively few who earn any recognition.

Science Olympiad

I competed with our school’s Science Olympiad twice as well, traveling to a nearby college and earning medals each year. My first experience was with forensics, taking the equivalent of a chemistry lab and solving mysteries with our findings. In the second, more seasoned now and a little too sure of myself as a senior, I walked in with no preparation for my main chosen competition (entomology). My teammate and I worked extremely well together though, and pulled through to great success!

Yearbook

As an editor and a student spending large parts of my day in the computer lab, I more or less ran the creation of my high school’s 50-year anniversary yearbook. I designed the theme and format, chose fonts, wrote headlines and copy, worked on photos in Photoshop, and even implemented the use of augmented reality app Aurasma to include further storytelling. The end result was incredible, tying together the history of Marcellus and its current graduating class in an award-winning design.

Mock Trial

Though our mock trial team was very small, often with barely enough members to qualify for competition, we were mighty. My acting abilities shone in my chosen position of “witness.” More than that however, this activity honed my wit until I was such a quick thinker that one of the last guys to cross-examine me had to catch a teary breather in the hallway halfway through. We never advanced far, but it was still a very rewarding experience that taught a lot about the legal system and morality.

Remake of Niagara for PTSD Awareness

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Paper Painting

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Color Studies: Squares and Complementary Shades

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“Trash” Painting

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Technical Proficiency: Color Mixing

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Doodles: Angel vs Dragon

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Presentations

Dinosaurian Clades

Mammalian Clades

Human Effects

Essays

The Sixth Mass Extinction

According to much scientific research, we are on the verge of a sixth mass extinction. Many clues come from a mass extinction at the end of the Permian, in which there was a 10 degree Celsius temperature increase globally from carbon release–much like what is occurring today. This temperature increase was part of a deadly trio: global warming, ocean acidification, and ocean deoxygenation. Mammals facing this trifecta of horror would perspire in the warmth, need more food and oxygen to keep their strength up, and then die when there was even less oxygen available than they were used to. The ocean acidification even led to the demise of over 90% of all ocean life at one point, as they were unable to cope with the relatively rapid change to their environment. In fact, this is why brachiopods–once extremely numerous globally–are found few and far between today. Nearly all were wiped out while many land animals were totally unaffected. This leads to interesting questions about fossil record bias, as much of our evidence on the effects of the ocean acidifying are based on the previous prevalence and current sparsity of brachiopod fossils. If, perhaps, something in their evolutionary processes made the current shells less likely to fossilize, we could be misinterpreting a major cause of one of the most important events in our planet’s history. This could lead to terrible ramifications, such as misjudging what is currently affecting our planet, providing the improper treatment, and either letting global warming continue to harm us or making the situation even worse.

The presentation examined other ways besides brachiopod deposits in which we have used the fossil record to determine causes of previous mass extinctions (to apply to the possibility of a future one). Linear regression was used to see if the amount of samples found of various types of animal before and after extinction events could find a commonality. For example, these groups were compared: big vs small animals, sedentary vs mobile animals, predators vs prey, and surface swimmers vs sea floor swimmers. Largely the results indicated that there was no real selectiveness in who survived the mass extinction events, unless you count a slight unfavorable trend toward small, non-motile, prey, and pelagic (surface swimmer) groups (much of which makes sense, as the non-motile animals could not escape changing environments, ending the food sources of smaller prey creatures; similarly, the surface of water experiences far greater change than the sea floor in nearly every aspect and would make its inhabitants far more susceptible to danger). One particularly interesting finding was that during a Cenozoic mass extinction, smaller animals died in much larger numbers. This is in stark contrast to what we’ve observed in recent times, such as the nonexistence of megafauna in North America leading to calls for Pleistocene rewilding. The talk ended with a warning but a message of hope as well, to the tune of “there’s still time to save ourselves!” It will be interesting to see if rewilding and other methods of reducing global warming is the way to achieve that, or if we will see keystone megafauna such as hippos dying out rather than say mice.

While studying abroad in Czechia, I took two 5-week business courses. One can be seen at this link and was the McCombs portion of the summer. The other was this, Organizational Behavior, and was taught by a series of prominent Czech professors at the University of Economics in Prague. This was a challenge, as there were language barriers and the teaching style of Czech professors varies vastly from the average US professor. The cultural causes of this can be examined in the link above, but here I want to show a little about myself as well as how much I learned about teamwork. The human pyramid and similar exercises taught as much as the spontaneous group presentations, and guest speakers provided fascinating insights. However, my favorite parts were certainly this exploration of my quantitative OCEAN personality profile, as well as using something as cute as The Penguins of Madagascar to explore each possible Belbin team member you will encounter and how to activate their synergistic potential (as well as hone my presentation skills while under duress).

One of the final courses in the advertising management sequence required, among many other things of course, the analysis of a number of industry case studies. What follows are my submissions, all of which were received very well and represent my ability to problem-solve creatively and rationally.

This incredible course by the incredible Professor Dudo opened my eyes to an integration of science and writing that suits me perfectly and that I cannot wait to explore in a professional setting. What I learned cannot be summed up in anything I could attach here, but my final project is still a good example. While it began as a group project, I led the team from the start and wrote the vast majority of what you see here. I’m sure you’ll be happy to know that it received the best score in the class!

I am currently working to start a company! It will of course start out small, as my production will for awhile be solely from my mother when she has time off from her primary job. The main goal right now is proper branding, as I began this process due to the extremely high potential for effectiveness there with this particular business. I would like to see it grow beyond my family, but for now I would also be very happy just to see secondary income.

Keep in touch, and place an order if you’re at all interested; I have great faith in us and know you’ll love the results too.

Years of attendance, recent graduation party with cords.

A lot of my other posts tie into this one, so this is some background for them. My third certificate (more hours than a minor) from UT is in Global Management, a selective and difficult program that doesn’t see more than a couple dozen graduates each year. It requires, among many other things, a study abroad experience. Mine was fulfilled in Czechia.

Since it is its own special system within UT and the McCombs School of Business, and currently undergoing structural modification, the certificate does not show on my transcript or any records in the directory. However, I do have this certificate to prove that it was not all in vain!

[insert once framed]

Many of the classes overlapped with my Business Foundations Program coursework, such as macroeconomics, but quite a few of the rest dealt with the book The Cultural Solution, which I highly recommend in any context. The basic gist is that this certificate teaches its graduates how to effectively and compassionately work and live with people whose values and methods differ from your own. The ultimate goal is cultural synergy, but along the way one also learns have to navigate personal relationships as well as management and teamwork strategies.

One of the less-traveled routes I took as an advertising student at UT was research. This interesting opportunity actually arose for me a couple of times, in various fields.

Beyond the relevant coursework and projects, I was approached by advertising Professor Pounders, who sought student help with her research on the effect of plus-size models in magazines on children. My job, with a few others, was to gather popular youth magazines, create tests to show to focus groups and on a larger survey, and code the results from respondents. Her final project can be viewed in video presentations and in trade journals.

After taking two geology courses, I was a huge fan. While it wouldn’t be prudent to pursue a second major when I already had three minors, I did take the opportunity to assist with research at the Vertebrate Paleontology Lab on the Pickle Research Campus north of central UT. In that quiet, dusty section of the city is housed one of the premier paleontology facilities and collections in the country, visited year-round by esteemed professionals in the field. While the historically-significant prized specimens were incredible to take a closer look at, my role was in sifting through bags of dirt for tiny animal bones (snake teeth, mouse skulls, etc) to label and sort. If my schedule had permitted me to stay a little longer, I would have worked on restoration and mold-casting.

Most recently, I created an academic research poster to show for my Bridging Disciplines Connecting Experience. See the associated post here for more information on that.

Clearly, there is a reason I choose the research department whenever in an advertising agency! I used to claim it was from my start as an Electrical Engineering and Computer Science major, but now I’m starting to think my interest was nurtured through the many completely different opportunities I was able to take part in as an undergraduate student.