Tell us a bit about yourself and your interests.
I am a junior from the Westminster Schools. My parents are from Panama and Puerto Rico and I speak English and Spanish at home. I am trilingual with French and I am the only one other than my brother who speaks French. I am an aspiring Music Performance and French major. The viola is my primary instrument but I also play piano, drums, melodica, compose and do audio production and design. I am part of my school’s orchestra and church’s Worship Team. I love putting bands and groups together to perform, it is one of my biggest passions and talents. I am very dedicated to community service back home through volunteering events and performing music for the community.

What made you apply to SYA?
My school is dedicated to creating global leaders, and through them I have had incredible opportunities especially through foreign language studies. I’ve known since kindergarten about this incredible study abroad program that would let you do a year in France although I didn’t know it was specifically called SYA. I had already been feeling the call to push myself to be more independent and discover myself so when SYA came to my school, I immediately knew this program was for me. This idea of studying abroad had been my motivation for 11 years of French classes, so I reached out to SYA, told my parents that same day and started my application process. The rest is history.

What are your hopes for your SYA experience?
I want to make a positive impact on the SYA and Rennes community through service and leadership and also be able to bring information and experience back home to Atlanta to help other kids have access to similar study abroad opportunities. I hope to make very strong connections this year with my peers, teachers, host family and French locals. I am seeing more and more how many amazing opportunities there are here in Europe for studies and through SYA for potential job opportunities so I would love to make friends and connections to be able to come back to Rennes in the future. In these first few weeks, discovering myself and my identity through exploring the community has shown me so many beautiful things while relearning time management, adjusting to cultural norms and reevaluating my priorities in my free time. I feel like I've already grown so much in regards to my maturity and I can’t wait to see what the rest of the year has in store for me.

What are you most looking forward to this year?
SYA has a lot of opportunities for student-led clubs so I’ve founded Resonance Rennaises which is a music service club here at SYA France. We have a large group of student musicians this year from all different types of musical backgrounds and I can’t wait to see how our concerts are going to come out. I am in charge of arranging music and coordinating practices/outings and we are already scheduled to perform in front of the U.S. Consulate in France which will be an amazing opportunity. I am also looking forward to playing viola with the Rennes Music Conservatory and taking private lessons. Additionally, I'm excited to grow in my level of French — I feel like my conversational and analytical skills are already improving so much and every day I’m finding myself thinking more and more in French without having to translate back to English.

What would you say to the donors who made this experience possible?
Thank you so much for this incredible opportunity. You can’t imagine the profound impact that your donation has had on me, my family and the way that I view language studies. So many scholarship opportunities from my home school to summer camps and now a year abroad have changed my life. Scholarships have afforded me access to exceptional education, leadership roles and cultural experiences and I feel the responsibility to pay it forward. I will make the most of this opportunity to learn and grow as a person, make a positive difference here in Rennes and bring what I've gained back home to make an impact in my community, church and school.