Isa Bergeron-Prejean
by ian curtis
When Isa Bergeron-Prejean tore her ACL in February 2021, she thought her dream of playing college soccer was over.
Two years later, she is set to become the newest member of the Tarleton State Texans women’s soccer program.
“I thought I wouldn’t get
Senior Araily Maralbyek is ethnically Kazakh, but she was born in Mongolia.
For that reason alone, she would have received 80% off of her tuition to Nazarbayev University in Astana, Kazakhstan. Excitingly, she won a scholarship that covered her entire tuition.
She plans to study engineering and live permanently in the Central Asian country.
“Because I'm planning to live the rest of my life there, I think it's important to know the culture and language and just generally how to fit in with Kazakh people,” Maralbyek said. “When I came [to] America for the first time, it was a really big culture shock. I don't want that happening to me in a place [where] I'm going to be living forever, so I think it’s a better way to go back.”
Maralbyek has grown up with a deep connection to the country’s
recruited,” Bergeron-Prejean said. “I tore it going into my junior year, and that’s when athletes get recruited.”
After an intensive 10 month recovery period, she returned to the pitch, and got in touch with a brand new Division I squad that was looking to fill their roster.
“I emailed them and they went
culture. Though she’s easing her transition by attending an Englishspeaking university, she’s looking forward to being a part of her ethnic community.
“My parents try to maintain Kazakh culture in our home, so I can't wait to go and see that practice with everyone else — the food and the language and the clothes,” Maralbyek said. “The cultural aspects, to see people who have in common with what I have — a close community feel, basically.”
During the application process, Maralbyek found that people she talked to knew little about Kazakhstan and thought it was much less developed than it actually was.
“I think there's some assumptions made about Kazakhstan that a lot of people have wrong,” Maralbyek said. “It’s a very advanced country in terms of technology, and it's growing very fast.”
“It’s a great opportunity for me to start from scratch,” BergeronPrejean said. “A teammate of mine said, ‘Hey, this program is brand new.’ They thought I’d be a good fit because it’s in the WAC and they were also going to the WAC.”
Bergeron-Prejean was aided in her recovery and overall training thanks to her experience as part of the Consol track and field team, she says.
“[Tarleton State] saw me at the end of my recovery and they thought I was fast,” Bergeron-Prejean said. “That was a shock to me, because I
However, the decision to enroll at a Kazakh university wasn’t easy. Though she’s eager to experience Kazakh culture at its finest, she was worried about leaving America behind and the change that comes with moving halfway across the world.
“At first, I was a little bit
had just come off of my ACL injury and started doing track. It definitely helped my speed and endurance.”
Bergeron-Prejean is grateful for the opportunity to live out her dream, and excited to see what the future holds.
“It means a lot because I worked my butt off,” Bergeron-Prejan said. “And it means someone saw that and liked what they saw, and I didn’t do all the work to not be noticed. I’ve always wanted to play soccer, and I want to see how far I go.”
Despite the years of work she’s put into her athletic career, Bergeron-Prejeans says she’s just as excited for what she’ll find at Tarleton off of the pitch.
“I’m excited to have a team around me, not just as soccer players but as friends and family,” BergeronPrejean said. “There’s more to me than just athletics. People know me as a soccer player, but there’s an Isa outside of soccer, and that’s what I truly am.”
unhappy because I've grown really fond of America,” Maralbyek said. “I've gotten used to living here and I felt like going there would be a big change that I was not ready for yet. But right now, I'm actually very excited. I've prepared myself for the change, and I think it's going to be good.”
2 | seniors | the roar friday, may 19, 2023
Araily Maralbyek by may sarin
A poster on the wall advertising a local dance class caught the eye of a young C.J. Zapalac. The preschooler asked his mom if he could try a class, and the world of dance has consumed his life ever since.
Twelve years later, after auditioning in Austin and then
While other seniors are busy getting ready to move into their dorm rooms, Dash Jasperson will be preparing to move over 5,000 miles away to Montevideo, Uruguay, as part of a two-year mission trip.
“In our church, it’s really organized,” Jasperson said. “I filled out a missionary application [and] had to get medical information and my passport together — all the stuff you need when you’re going out of the country. A couple months later I got a call and they said, ‘You’re going to Uruguay.’”
Nestled between Argentina and Brazil on the Atlantic coast of South America, the nation of three and a half million speaks Spanish, which Jasperson is eager to learn.
“It’s a good skill to have,” Jasperson said. “I’ve been learning on Duolingo for the past two months, so I know more than I did two months ago.”
Jasperson is not the first from his family to embark on an
competitive, but if they like what you can do and if they see the potential, then they accept you.”
Only recently finding out about his acceptance to Pittsburgh in February and receiving a full scholarship that covers tuition and housing, Zapalac quickly abandoned his original plans and got on track to finish high school early. Attending several summer events also aided in this decision.
for opportunities later on along with the generous scholarships motivated him to graduate a year early and move across the country at 16.
receiving news that he was accepted into their year-round program, Zapalac decided to graduate a year early to train with the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre.
“You audition and come to an interview, and it's a bunch of kids in a room all wanting the same thing,” Zapalac said. “It's typically
international mission trip.
“It’s expected in my family,” Jasperson said. “Two of my siblings went to foreign countries for their mission trips. Seeing how much it changed the lives of my siblings made me realize it’s definitely something worth doing.”
The opportunity to serve strangers is what drew Jasperson towards the mission field, he says.
“I really like helping and teaching other people,” Jasperson said. “This is really important to me, and I feel like this is going to be a significant event in my life.”
The mission does not come without worries, Jasperson says.
“It can be dangerous,” Jasperson said. “Being in a foreign country, traveling around an unfamiliar city, and not being able to communicate very well. But I feel like there will be people there to help me.”
Jasperson also says the trip comes with practical benefits that differ from the typical college experience
“For a long time, I was like, ‘Maybe if I go into the military, then after that I can figure out what I want to do,’ because there’s free college after the military,” Zapalac said. “Then I started getting into ballet a lot more and doing more summer intensives. Last summer, I spent two weeks with the Nashville Ballet and then did six weeks in Columbus, Ohio with Balletmet.”
In the ballet world, people start careers young, and most dancers retire around 35 years old, Zapalac says. The fear of being passed up
“I have a few friends [that ask] why I don't just take my senior year and do [dance] next year,” Zapalac said. “Well, they might pass me up next year because I said no this year. One of the companies actually did that [when] I got an offer last year to stay with them year-round.”
Being a professional dancer is the dream for now, but regardless of if his plans change down the road, Zapalac is sure that dance will always be a part of his life.
“I want to move up in level,” Zapalac said. “They offered me a level 8 position, [but] I want to try and get into the graduate program there [and be a trainee]. After a year or two, I can go into a second company position, which is right below a company member. So it's right below professional.”
Dash Jasperson
by ian curtis
“It’s living away from your family and on your own before college, but you have more help.” Jasperson said. “It’s more organized, and you have people taking care of you. It’s practice living by yourself before you have to worry about having a job and going to school.”
Jasperson hopes the mission creates a precedent as he moves
into adulthood.
“When you graduate from high school, that’s a transition for everyone,” Jasperson said. “A mission trip, where I’m serving God and serving other people, is going to be my first experience. I’ve started adulthood with a good thing that’s going to be the standard for the rest of my life.”
the roar | seniors | 3 friday, may 19, 2023
CJ
Zapalac by myla cathey
Choir members recognize Jeffery Li as the assistant piano accompanist for the choir who has 12 years of piano experience, but his parents and other classmates know he also volunteers in research labs and has lifelong hopes of working in the medical field. Keeping both careers as an option, Li will attend University of Texas at Austin to major in both piano performance and premed. He says the two surprisingly support each other well.
“There's a lot of thought behind studying music that would be beneficial to medicine because medicine, despite being STEM, is almost like an art form,” Li said. “The problem-solving techniques for both of those fields are actually very similar, which is unexpected.”
This was not always Li’s plan, though. After a transformative summer of piano, Li made the decision in September to pursue higher education in music.
“Over the summer, I attended this statewide music camp in Kentucky, because that's where I'm from, and it opened my eyes
to music as a career,” Li said. “But I know that music in general is not stable at all, so I wanted to have something else that I was interested in, which has always been medicine for me.”
After applying to Butler School of Music at UT, Li found out that he passed the first round of auditions. Then, he did a live audition at the school while visiting to learn more about the campus and compare it to other schools with impressive music programs.
“In November, I took a tour [of UT], but it was actually a shadow day where I shadowed these students at the Butler School,” Li said. “I found out that all the counselors and professors make it really easy to go about doing both these things at the same time, which was really nice to find out.”
Li decided UT was the right choice, as their professors seemed to understand that some musicians might want to be an artist, while some may just enjoy music without a concrete plan to pursue it.
“If I were to go into one and not the other, I would still be
supported by the other,” Li said. “Music majors have some of the highest acceptance rates into med school, and a lot of the things play a factor into that. If you do both during your undergrad, you can show that you have a high level of time management since both take a long time to do.”
After college, Li will make the decision to either attend med school or to go to graduate school for music. While interested in continuing both, he ultimately
said. “But [in] jazz, you could really do everything by ear, which is what I did. There's a big focus on improv and putting your own spin on things.”
From then on, Vorse Lede chased rhythm. He took some tap dancing lessons, stood in with bands, played stand-up bass in orchestra, and joined Consol’s jazz band — first for bass, then switching to jazz piano.
“[Rhythm is] something that everybody can relate to,” Vorse Lede. “Rhythm is everywhere, from the beat of your heart to the street. Everything has a rhythm. I find that rhythm really moves people, and I like that.”
by myla cathey Jeffery
wishes to deep-dive into one or the other rather than combining both skills for a career.
“My parents are medical researchers, so I've done some work in labs,” Li said. “I'm really interested in learning about medicine in general. In terms of piano, I’ve worked in certain ensembles and worked with other people collaboratively, and that’s something that I might be interested in doing for the rest of my life.”
and other auditioning students he met were eager to learn.
“The teachers were willing for you to tell them things that they don't know,” Vorse Lede said. “They want to learn. Students want to learn not only from the teachers, but the other students around them. I found that quite amazing.”
Additionally, Vorse Lede was inspired to minor in art history after taking Lindsay Gough’s art history class in junior year. His future goal is to play jazz piano anywhere and everywhere before retiring and becoming a jazz piano teacher himself.
When senior Andrew Vorse Lede plays music, it takes him “somewhere else,” he says. That powerful sensation has led him to Loyola University in New Orleans to major in jazz piano with a minor in art history.
Vorse Lede started out learning
classical piano, but his dyslexia made it difficult to read the music. His teacher then referred him to a jazz piano instructor, which began his foray into jazz.
“Classical involves sticking to the piece and reading the melody that's laid before you,” Vorse Lede
In sophomore year, he toured Loyola University in New Orleans and thought it was amazing. He completed two auditions — one recorded and one in-person — for the application process, playing songs that he felt best represented his capabilities while adding his own interpretations. A highlight of the process was how much the teachers
“The plan after college is to play as much as possible around the world, meet as many people as I can, and just learn from experience that other people around the world have,” Vorse Lede said. “Music is very different around the world. There's lots of views that aren't seen here. I'd like to find those, learn those, and I think it'd be great to incorporate that into music.”
4 | seniors | the roar friday, may 19, 2023
Andrew Vorse Lede by may sarin
Li
letters to freshmen
seniors bid a final farewell to their freshmen siblings seniors bid a final farewell to their freshmen siblings
Dear Ingrid,
I'm so proud to call you my sister. You've accomplished many things and I cannot wait to see what more you do. It's true you have your flaws but you're perfect in many ways as well. You're truly an inspiration, you know how to have fun and vou light up any room with your laughter. Keep up the hard work.
-Dulce
Dear Brock,
I have never met someone so genuine and caring towards others. You have the kindest heart and treat everyone with respect. I’m so proud of the person you’ve become. Your love for the Lord is beyond incredible. I hope you continue to grow through Him and remember He is always with you. It has been an amazing experience getting to spend a year with you in high school and see all the remarkable ways you’ve grown as a person. Even though I’m moving down the road next year at A&M, I hope you continue to be true to yourself. I can’t wait to see what the future has in store for you.
Love you, Grace
goodbye since I’m not moving out and you’re threatening to spend the summer sleeping on the futon next to my bedroom door. But since I’ve got the edge on you in high school experience, let me write one of these anyway. I’m so proud of you for finding not one, but two things you’re passionate about at this school in theater and AVP. Trust me, that goes a long way over the next few years. High school sucks without having anything to be excited for. Luckily you won’t have that problem. Just save me a spot in one of your movies, I still want to make a FilmFest cameo eventually.
Oh and don’t let people forget: I’m still the funny one.
being what our “my emotional support human”
bittersweet year. It’s hard to give you advice as you continue your high school journey since you’re already the type of person I strive to be. So, maybe I should be taking pointers from you. The one thing I would say to you is to be confident, and put yourself out there. Without making yourself known, you may not ever get the opportunities and recognition you deserve, and you sure do deserve it. Always stay your nice, sweet self, but as our queen Taylor Swift says, “Never be so kind, you forget your power.”
Thank you for being a great little brother. I have really enjoyed spending more time with you this year. I am so proud of you for adapting to high school and finding your place here. I know you will get settled quickly in Maryland and have a great time. If you ever need anything, I’ll only be like thirty minutes away.
Love, Grace
the roar | seniors | 5 friday, may 19, 2023
Grace & Brock Saunders
Grace & Trentin Yeh
Ian & Cameron Curtis
Trentin,
Over the past four years, I’ve spent hours looking at previous senior issues of The Roar in an attempt to ignore my own responsibilities. During those procrastinationfueled reading sessions, I’ve seen senior columns that are elegant, fiery, award-worthy pieces of writing that serve as each staffer’s last hurrah before they venture off into the great beyond.
This is not one of those columns.
I’ve done a half-decent job at becoming “the newspaper guy” over the past few years, and there’s no other way to end it than the most stereotypical way possible: writing about the
One time, I bombed a test and cried in front of my teacher.
He told me not to worry. My test performance was now in the past; it’s secured. It can’t be changed. So instead, think about the future. I’d heard this sentiment countless times before, but hadn’t really processed it until now. It felt like a weight removed from my shoulders.
So, in honor of change, I want to recap three of them I experienced during high school…the new doors I had never expected to open, the forks in the road I never expected to go down. To the people who thought I knew what I was doing — think again!
#1: not doing athletics or fine arts
I was on the middle school dance team (and loved it!) and for spring training, we’d prepare for high school dance team tryouts. I even went to a mock practice hosted by the Bengal Belles, but I was so nervous about bombing the tryout, I didn’t attempt it at all.
I replaced my passions with color guard, sticking through the grueling summer eight-to-eights and learning marching show choreography. But as August ‘19 approached, my continued inability to do a certain flag toss made me scared to stay in the program.
I was going to continue doing choir from middle school, but even that fell by the wayside. My plans of establishing four-year sports and music careers vanished. Instead I got my creativity fix through a last minute decision to take audio video production, which led to the weirdest and most outof-character experiences I’ve ever had (and which I took far too long to truly appreciate!)
newspaper that I’ve poured my heart and soul into — and spent so many hours stressing over. So here’s a patchwork of an open letter held together by duct tape (metaphorically) and caffeine (literally).
But first, to the senior class: It’s hard to believe we’ve finally made it. There are so many of you that I know will go on to do great things, (and so many who already have) and I can’t wait to take down a dusty old yearbook from a top shelf, point at a picture you probably wish you could have retaken at the time, and say, ‘I knew they would make it one day.’
Now that that’s out of the way, here’s that newspaper letter I promised:
To everyone who’s let me write about them, interview them, or just tolerated my presence on the sidelines, thank you. It’s been an honor to tell your stories, and I hope I did them justice.
And to everyone who read those stories, I hope I made your time at Consol a little better than it would have been otherwise, even if you disagreed with some of my more controversial columns.
As for those stories I never had the guts to start or never had the energy to finish, I am sorry. I wish my work could have been perfect, but there’s things I wished I’d written and things I wished I didn’t.
To May and Myla, I couldn’t have done anything I did without y’all. We may not always have agreed, but I’ve had a blast working with y’all from the days of Procrastination Station all the way to this senior issue, and I can’t wait to see what all you go on to accomplish.
#2: covid, baby!
In these last few weeks, it’s like a pseudo-pre-pandemic version of myself has resurfaced. During the pandemic, I wasn’t really me. I was introverted instead of extroverted, I had imposter syndrome, and like the rest of us, I felt this constant sense of missed opportunities, self-consciousness and misconstrued comfort in loneliness.
Talk about change, right? Almost all the advice our peers had about shaping our high school life — “Go to the dance!” “Get involved in clubs!” “Go to tutoring hours!” — it all became irrelevant. But then we adapted. We helped each other get by. And here we are now! 2023, baby!
#3: college
I applied to at least four different majors across 13 colleges and universities. In August ‘22, I was confident in my love for video production, so I put Visualization on my A&M app. But in UT, for whatever reason, Journalism felt right. Cue my mini-panic thinking I should’ve focused on STEM all along, so I even applied to Biology at some places! I did three nerve-wracking interviews — all rejections. Fortunately, after visiting UT a couple of times, things began falling into place. The anxiety and dissatisfaction from all those rejections faded away into a near-ethereal contentment. Simply put, my future was secured. There’s no doubt my past is full of mistakes, but thinking about my current prospects puts a smile on my face, and that’s good enough for me.
If freshman me had known that I wouldn’t be a Belle, they would have gone, “Yeah, right.” Or that a pandemic would sweep the entire world? Freshman me was not
To the rest of The Roar staffers I’ve worked with over the past four years, I wish I could mention you all by name. Even though all of you have driven me crazy at least once (and some of you a few dozen times) I’m so glad I had the chance to work with you.
To Michael ‘Big Mike’ ‘Dr. Big Mike’ ‘Friar Williams’ Williams, thank you for everything you’ve done for me and for this paper and tolerating us through every late night and conversation you wish you could unhear.
And to the Roar staffer reading this, be it one of you I already know or a future one I never had the chance to meet: Enjoy your time on staff. Because quite frankly, my time in high school would have sucked without The Roar.
But it’s not just about having fun. There is no reason this paper cannot be one of the best in the state. We may have a small staff size, but that means we are all well-rounded out of sheer necessity. I’ve seen us produce stories, photos, columns, designs, and everything else that could go toe to toe with any other paper in Texas. There is no reason you cannot excel.
And if you ever need advice, a favor, or someone to brag to, I shouldn’t be too hard to find. Just because I’m moving on to other publications doesn’t mean I don’t want to see this paper succeed. Wherever I’m at by the time you’re reading this, I wouldn’t have gotten there without The Roar.
anticipating these changes, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. You never know where life is going to take you. Change is inevitable, just like Thanos. In a few years, you’ll look back at your choices and “marvel.” Haha, get it?
Anything can happen, so whatever it is, we can do it!
may will be attending ut austin to major in journalism.
friday, may 19, 2023 8 | seniors | the roar
ian will be attending texas a&m university to major in journalism.
executive editor
may sarin managing editor
ian curtis
I lost a baby tooth on all of these days: the night before St. Patrick’s Day, on Father’s Day 2012, on my fourteenth birthday and on May 1, 2020. I remember all of these moments like they happened yesterday.
My kindergarten teacher’s birthday is July 28, and my childhood best friend 's birthday is August 8. I haven’t spoken to either one in at least eight years.
Does it do me any good to know these dates or have a photographic memory of my childhood? No, not really, unless I get asked some weirdly specific questions by my dentist.
My secret talent is that I remember the most insignificant moments and tidbits of information, no matter how irrelevant.
I remember receiving a gold star from my teacher one day in first grade and how my mom was so happy for me after getting an email delivering the good news. I also remember the reason I got that star. The reason was that I didn’t cry that day.
I spent most days crying — I remember that vividly, too.
My first grade teacher’s birthday is April 25, by the way.
I remember visiting the nice lady in the back of the office every Wednesday in second grade. One time, I told her about my bad day and cried the whole time, and she gave me a squishy toy to play with. I called our time together, “Rainy Wednesdays” because her name was Ms. Rain, and I had these visits to talk about my “rainy” days.
In my fifth grade history class, we once watched a documentary about Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. There were no gory scenes, but the subject, along with the dimmed lights, made me beg the teacher to let me run to the nurse’s office to catch my breath.
I remember how the inhaler I was recently prescribed didn’t work, but that was all the nurse had to offer. I so desperately wanted to put an end to my “asthma attack” just like the other kids with inhalers did.
I then remember my mom being angry at the doctors who prescribed me the inhaler, and they proceeded to run me through allergy tests, lung evaluations and other unsuccessful breathing studies.
After that, I remember crying when we figured out why I couldn’t breathe sometimes after visiting another doctor who introduced us to the concept of panic attacks.
I had a perfect family, perfect grades, perfect friends, perfect physical health and perfect everything, and I may remember birthdays easily, but it’s unfortunately not the happy memories that come to mind first when I think about my youth.
I was always plagued by these memories of my sad childhood, and I wished I could forget these details I committed to memory since they seemed so pathetic. I hated being the girl with the sad face who freaked out at every inconvenience.
Whether the memories were solidified because of their emotionally-charged circumstances or because I was constantly scared of being tested on these random details, I don’t mind their presence now. I don’t mind remembering every miserable little detail because they tell the story of why I am how I am.
Through recalling these memories, I realize I was an extremely successful child because of my anxious drawbacks. Sure, I wish I had spent my youth being happy and perceived as “normal”, but I would rather have had the ability to release emotions and be known as “the crying girl” than to hold it all
in and never find the right treatment because of that. My real secret talent is that I’ve always been an uptight mess, but now I can cope and use my overflowing emotions to my advantage, never leaving someone wondering how I feel.
So, I will continue to be the girl who cries to honor the misunderstood anxious wreck of a child that I was. I will cry at graduation when I say goodbye to people I will never see again, when I move out of my lifelong home and when I get rejected from jobs, and I will keep crying as I type this last sentence of my Roar newspaper career.
myla will be attending the university of central missouri to major in pyschology and compete in d1 bowling.
the roar | seniors | 9 friday, may 19, 2023
editor-in-chief myla cathey
seniors by the numbers 20
2
based on a survey completed by 340 out of the 480 seniors national farthest college nazarbayev university, kazakhstan araily maralbyek 6,859.44 miles
in
etc.
states 4 countries
capitals
74 % of students are staying
state 3 % workforce 2 % trade school, military,
95 % college
