senior profiles

Jacob Speakman by Sam de Figueiredo

Senior Jacob Speakman considers himself proud to toot his own horn -- after six years of playing in bands and orchestras, he will continue his studies at the University of Cincinnati Conservatory of Music.

Speakman said he discovered his desire to become a professional musician in a middle school orchestra rehearsal.

“I just realized there’s no ‘lose’ scenario in this game,” Speakman said. “Yeah, you’ll suffer some anxiety when you have a really

Senior Eric Zhang was involved in everything--orchestra, basketball, AP level classes, robotics--but his passion is computer science.

“I just really like how it's a lot of technical skill, but also you need creativity to think outside the box,” Zhang said. “There are multiple approaches to solving these programming problems and it's just putting all of those different techniques that I know into accomplishing something practical.”

Zhang was introduced to computer science through summer programs and the programming classes at Consol. He plans to study computer science at Cornell University next fall.

“The ultimate goal right now is I want to work for the CIA from a computer science perspective,” Zhang said. “I want to be able to do something meaningful and noble, just trying to make a difference.”

Zhang remembers that the first time he was able to understand code was an eye-opening experience--later influencing his decision to pursue computer science in college.

“Before I would look at a wall of code and it was all gibberish to me,” Zhang said. stressful program to play, but you’ll get over that -- just don’t be a baby about it. I figured, this is really the way to go.”

Since then, Speakman said he immersed himself in all things horn. In addition to being first chair horn in Consol’s band, he has been a member of the TMEA All-State Band. Most recently, he was accepted into the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America (NYOUSA), something Speakman describes as “one of the most prestigious things you can “Being able to interpret what some of that meant was really enlightening. It was just an amazing feeling like ‘holy cow I get it now’ and knowing that this is what I want to do because it clicks.”

Programming I and II teacher, Diane Rister, also noticed that Zhang expressed a genuine interest in studying computer science.

“[He’s a] very bright and focused young man, and you can tell that he really likes this course because he just studied it, even if class was over, he continued on with the assignment,” Rister said. “He was really focused on getting everything done and even learning more, taking the problem to another level.”

Zhang’s dedication to understanding computer science has helped him to persevere, even when a problem seems particularly difficult--a lesson that he considers useful both in programming and in life.

“[Sometimes] it just won't work and you won't know why and you just have to keep attacking a problem from different angles,” Zhang said. “Just keep going at it even if you get deterred, and you'll find your way out eventually.” do as a high school musician.”

“We’re going on tour and doing eight different concerts in the nicest concert halls in Europe. The conductor of the Royal Opera House is our conductor,” Speakman said. “You get to tour the world and play with not only the best high school musicians in the country, but you get to play with professional conductors and soloists.”

While Speakman is excited for his upcoming opportunity, he said he expects the difficult programs to create “killer” anxiety before performances.

“On horn, you could virtually put down the same fingering and play a million different notes. We’re also given the stupidest stressful solos,” Speakman said. “When you go to a concert, the people that will miss the most notes is the horn section. It’s not our fault. It happens.”

While fumbled notes could go unnoticed in the viola or violin section, in which multiple people play the same part, Speakman said that isn’t the case in the wind and brass sections.

“You’re like one on a part, so everything is exposed,” Speakman said. “If you mess up, everyone’s gonna hear it, and you instantly get judged by a lot of people. You could even potentially get fired in a professional orchestra.”

Eric Zhang by Olivia Conway

After teaching him for two years and witnessing his work ethic first-hand, Rister is confident that Zhang will succeed in college and beyond.

“He's going to Cornell, [which is a] very good computer science university, so the potential is there and he will see to it that he's going to learn everything he can,” Rister said. “He can be anything he wants

the roar | seniors | 3

Speakman said this pressure makes meticulous practice even more necessary. While he enjoys practicing, he said it makes completing school work a difficult balancing act.

“It’s annoying when I have a really busy schedule, and school tries to make you do a lot. When I’m gone or busy with music stuff, that’s the stuff that’s actually gonna help me,” Speakman said. “If I need to prepare an audition or something, I mean, it’s just a waste of time to do the other stuff.”

But even with his overwhelming schedule, Speakman said he has never once questioned following this path.

“My friends and I never say ‘Why do we do this,’ but we always joke like ‘I wish I picked violin,” Speakman said. “We always make jokes, but never seriously, because we always enjoy it.”

Speakman added that he doesn’t see his passion going away anytime soon.

“There’s so much left to learn about being more efficient, about how to win a job, about how to convey your meaning. There’s never going to be a point where anyone in their life will ever know everything.” Speakman said. “There’s too much music to learn in a lifetime, which is great because you’ll always have stuff to

keep you going.”

to be.”

Though programming, and high school in general, might have been difficult at times for Zhang, he is thankful for his experiences.

“It helped me grow a lot as a person, helped me find myself,” Zhang said. “It wasn't always easy, but looking back it was all good for me, all the trials, all the good

4 | seniors | the roar

Senior Jessica Peng is just as comfortable in a swimming pool as she is in a classroom. Earlier this year, Peng committed to swim for Columbia University, an Ivy League school with a Division 1 swim team. She considered several schools with strong acadmemics and good swimming teams during the recruiting process, but ultimately chose to attend Columbia after visiting the campuses.

“You have to reach out to the [college] coaches first and you have to keep the coaches updated and you keep updating them until they stop ignoring you,” Peng said. “The ones I considered the most were Cornell, Columbia, Rice, and UChicago, [but] I liked Columbia the most.”

Peng has been swimming competitively with the Aggie Swim Club since she was seven years old, but she recalls that she didn’t really like it until a few years later when she seemed to improve almost overnight.

“[Swimming] was my parents' [idea] when I was little, but once I turned ten I really enjoyed swimming because I got better at it,” Peng said. “I'd been swimming and I was just like ‘I want to quit’ and then I went on a month-long vacation and I came back and then something happened.”

Since then, Peng has seen success in swimming--from making the competitive

Neha Gopal by Sam de Figueiredo

In between school and tennis practice, senior Neha Gopal developed her hobby of writing into somewhat of a career -- earlier this year, she published her first book, titled "10."

Gopal said being a teenager has given her a unique perspective among fiction authors. cut for Winter Junior Nationals to qualifying for an All-Star team after one of her first open-water competitions. Her talent and dedication in regard to swimming are evident to her coaches including Henry Clark, who has coached Peng in Aggie Swim Club for the past five years.

“She's very competitive, she's very strong, she's talented, she perseveres, she listens well, she's a good teammate, she just makes all the right qualities for what we want to see,” Clark said. “Jessica is just the role model for all of that, she always has herself under control and we've never had any issues with her about discipline or wondering if she's really understanding what we're trying to get from her.”

While Peng’s coaches are impressed with her accomplishments and dedication, for her swimming is just a normal part of her life.

“It's basically always been a thing, like I'll just keep swimming because it's so much of a normal routine,” Peng said. “I think I'm just going to keep swimming in college because it's so normal.”

With several practices a week, as well as dry land practices and other conditioning exercises, swimming takes up a large portion of Peng’s time. While Peng said that she did not mind the time commitment since many of her friends swam with

“A lot of times you see books about teenagers, but adults are the ones writing them. It’s interesting, but not necessarily authentic,” Gopal said. “With my book, it’s a teenager writing about being a teenager, so people can relate to it more.”

Gopal said she put plenty of thought into the creation of her book, meaning her

her, Clark noticed that Peng struggled during her junior year to swim and still have enough time to study.

“She was taking way too many AP level courses at school and it really affected her--she had a hard time because she was having to study so much and at the same time she wanted to do well on her swimming,” Clark said. “But after school was over we had a really good summer, she was much more relaxed, and this year going into her senior year she had a great season schedule was almost always full.

“I did take a lot of AP classes, so that took a lot of time and work,” Gopal said. “You do what you’ve got to do. Balancing passion and studies is definitely hard, but it doesn’t really feel like work if you’re doing what you love.”

Her twin brother, senior Neel Gopal, noticed and admired her work ethic.

“I was really impressed by the way she was able to balance writing a book with school and tennis,” her twin, senior Neel Gopal, said. “It took her awhile to finish the project, so the patience and dedication she has is really admirable.”

Neha Gopal said she’ll need to bring that discipline with her at Southwestern University, where she will major in Neuroscience and play tennis.

“I’m gonna keep up writing as a hobby for sure or join some sort of writing organization in college,” Neha Gopal said. “I’m still just trying to take in publishing my first book, but I know I want to publish another book another day.”

But Neha Gopal said it might be awhile before she publishes another book, considering it took three years of hard

Jessica Peng by Olivia Conway

this past fall and spring.”

Clark also credits swimming with helping Peng to leave her comfort zone and prepare to go to college with a new group of people. Rather than focusing on being nervous, Peng is enthusiastic about meeting her new teammates at Columbia.

“We actually have a group chat already--they're really cool. It's going to be pretty exciting to meet new people,” Peng said. “I mean I guess I'm nervous in gen-

eral, but I'll think about that later.” work to publish this one.

“There were times when I wanted to give up, because I’m telling you, the writing I did was crap,” Neha Gopal said. “But my dad especially pushed me. He’s a really good writer, so he put the passion into me.”

Neha Gopal added that her longtime friend, senior Darby Hurley, also helped her reach her goal.

“Throughout her writing process, Neha would sometimes send me working manuscripts that I would read through and give feedback on,” Hurley said. “Honestly, she didn’t need my help for the book to be amazing, but I was still happy to support her.”

Neha Gopal said Hurley’s help made a tremendous impact, saying she even influenced certain aspects of the book.

“She’s one of my best friends. I put some of her personality, like her ambition, into one of the main characters,” Neha Gopal said. “My favorite part is taking a lot of personal experience and little bits of myself -- every day little inspirations from day to day -- and putting it into this story.”