While her friends plan out their next four years discussing ACL, dorm checklists and in-state tuition, senior Eren Bassett’s mind is far from that. 6,000 miles to be exact, in a place with a 14-hour time difference, bullet trains and away from her whole life that she’s built here. Next year, she will be attending Temple University in Japan, where she will be majoring in International Business. From doing marching band for a semester, to getting CCMA certified, to winning first place at the ProStart Invitational, Bassett has been involved in many different organizations throughout high school. 

She began her high school experience starting with marching band, but ultimately decided to quit after the first semester. Her sophomore year, she decided to start taking the Culinary classes, and according to her, this was where she learned how to manage people.

“I kind of had to boss a lot of people around and tell them what to do,” Bassett said. “It really taught me how to work with people and the importance of compromising with them.”

Bassett also decided to join the ProStart team during her senior year. She said that she decided to join because she felt more passionate about culinary after spending two years doing it. 

“It kind of started off as a joke,” Bassett said. “But then the more I did it, I realized how much I really care about it. That was definitely one of the first things I’ve really committed my time and effort to in high school.”

The ProStart team had their Invitational competition in March this past year, where they placed second as a team. In addition to that, Bassett also placed first with her appetizer, where she made a traditional Japanese dish called Chawanmushi.

“When the judges were giving me my score, they were like, ‘I’m not gonna lie, when we had your food at first, we didn’t really like it, but then the more we had it, the more we really liked it,’” Bassett said. “I also had this chef pull me aside and he was like, ‘I appreciate you maintaining your uniqueness. You’re not scared to be different, and you committed to being different and it paid off because you got first.’”

For Bassett, placing first in this competition was one of her biggest accomplishments in high school. She said that with a new culinary teacher and a lot of the experienced people having graduated, they weren’t super confident going into the competition this year.

“I would definitely say that was one of my biggest accomplishments, because it made me realize that I’m capable of winning,” Bassett said. “It really made me realize that when you put yourself into something you like, you can accomplish more.”

In addition to being involved in culinary, Bassett was also involved in PALS starting her junior year. For her, she feels like this was a big accomplishment emotionally.

“There isn’t anything that you’re aiming to win,” Bassett said. “The point of the class is to nurture these younger students and guide them into life and to being better people. You really get this unique connection with these little kids and it was a super, super cool experience.”

On top of that, Bassett has also gotten CCMA (Certified Clinical Medical Assistant) certified this past year through the medical classes. According to her, it was a rigorous process, including getting to shadow at actual hospitals, but one that she’s grateful for.

“It really put me in the shoes of a nurse and healthcare workers,” Bassett said. “It also made me realize that I want to be more administrative instead of hands-on. It was definitely a very eye-opening experience, and the fact that I’ve had the opportunity to get my certification, shadow at hospitals and then also to compete for culinary and work with kids is crazy, because I feel like a lot of schools don’t have all those programs.” 

Next year, Bassett will be attending college in Japan. In addition to her having family there, her decision to go to Japan was made last summer, when she went to visit on an international exchange program as an Austin ambassador. During this program, her and five other teenagers got to go to the schools there and teach the kids English.

“I learned so much in just that one week,” Bassett said. “I was talking to all these people that grew up in a foreign country, and they have such different life experiences and advice. Even in our group of teenagers, everyone had super different backgrounds and we’re all really different, but we still bonded and became friends. I realized if I go somewhere internationally, where all these different kinds of people from all over the world are going, I’m going to have a higher input of information, advice and life experiences that I think are going to benefit me the most.”

In the future, Bassett said that she is hoping to go into a career that involves people. She said that she wants to possibly connect her culinary experiences into that as well as international business.

“I’m really interested in international business because it’s a lot of networking and knowing the right people,” Bassett said. “Through all these different things I’ve done in high school, the main thing I’ve realized is my strength in connections and networking. I just feel like I’m really good at that and I didn’t realize I could actually do something with it until recently.”

According to Bassett, she’s feeling a little nervous, but overall excited for this four year move to Japan. 

“I am going in with a little bit more confidence just because I know Japanese and I have connections over there already,” Bassett said. “I’m just nervous about transportation and the hustle of the city because I’ve always grown up in the suburbs. I love the people here, but the expression that you see in Tokyo is so different and I feel a lot more accepted and in place there than I do here. So I’m definitely nervous because I’m literally moving thousands of miles away, but it’s also like a fresh start. I don’t know anyone and no one knows me, so I can make any impression I want.”