Bates College

Personal: 2026 graduate of Wayland (Mass.) High School ... competed skiing, rowing, and dive (not affiliated).

What does leadership mean to you?
Leadership is servitude. It’s taking charge and making decisions that are best for the group, not best for yourself. It’s making sacrifices behind the scenes, so those “under” your leadership can rise up to their best selves. Leaders are given power so they may lift up those around them.

What experience—big or small—has made a surprising impact on you?
I recently went on a trip with my boyfriend’s family, which made me realize just how differently some people live. Their habits and dynamics were so different from those of my family, and I came out of it more aware of how I was treating people. I come from a high strung family, and their family is very calm, and I’m beginning to find a balance between those two worlds, so I may find (and be) the best of both. I’ve been more positive, and negativity rolls off me more easily, all thanks to a single week.

What’s a failure or setback that taught you something valuable?
I was rejected from more schools than to which I was accepted, and that hit me hard—there were reaches, matches, and safeties in the mix of rejections—but it made me realize that a school shouldn’t just be about prestige, and those rejections didn’t define me. They guided me to Bates, where I know I’ll find a home, and they forced me to see myself as a person, and not as a number. I’ve fallen more in love with life, largely because of those rejections. I’ve realized that there will always be setbacks and obstacles, but that’s not a reason to give up, it’s just a reason to forge a
different path. Closed door and open window.

What’s a value or principle you try to live by?
The answer is always no if you never ask. I repeat this to myself all the time (almost like a mantra). I use it as motivation to shoot for opportunities that I believe I’m not qualified for. It goes hand in hand with “don’t make other people’s decisions for them”—if I get a no, then I get a no, but I did the most I could, and I’m not left with a “what if.”

What’s something about you that might surprise people?
I’m actually terrified for the future and for adulthood. I’m a pretty open book—I share a lot about what I’m interested in—and people tell me how jealous they are of how certain I seem about myself, my life, and my future. But I’m not certain at all, and I’m just trying very hard to fake it til I make it.