For Ainsley Harlan, every week is a busy week. After-school and before-school honor society meetings, Student Council events, senior class Instagram postings and DECA meets are all a part of her daily regimen. This year, she’s added on another task: Senior Class president.  

From running the senior class group chat, competing in DECA tournaments, helping plan Prom 2022 and leading the environmental initiative for Student Council, Harlan has done it all. As the class president, Harlan’s goal for this year was to unite the senior class. And as the year is coming to a close, it seems that she has done exactly that. 

“[Taking on] Senior Class President is probably the biggest and most time-consuming role I’ve taken,” Harlan said. “Especially because we’re the senior class and because we’re graduating, there’s so much happening and going on at the moment. So, I pretty much run the senior college posts, senior assassin game, senior prank and also plan senior skip day. Basically anything seniors want to do, I’m there helping plan it.”

Apart from her class presidential duties, Harlan has stayed involved in a variety of other organizations around the school, such as Student Council, DECA, PALS, NEHS and SNHS. A scholar through and through, Harlan prides herself on her achievements. 

“I am president of NEHS and SNHS, and I hold general membership in Mu Alpha Theta honor society and NHS,” Harlan explained. “I also compete in DECA. I absolutely love it. [This year], my teammates, Ariana Balakrishnan, Delaney McClure, and I competed in a team event for an Integrated Marketing Campaign and we’re alternatives for internationals. Ariana and I are three time state qualifiers for DECA.”

Though Harlan has spent a lot of time in the DECA classroom planning marketing campaigns and prepping speeches, she balanced her time in the Student Council room as well. 

“I’ve poured a lot of my time into StuCo,” Harlan said. “As Senior Class President, I’ve been working on that all year, 24/7. But, even before this year, I was at StuCo a lot and put in a lot of time. [Student Council] reaches a lot of the student body, so I’ve reached the most people with that. You’re not catering to a specific group as a very general broad thing and it keeps me on my toes, which I love. I’ve kind of found my leadership outlet in our weekly Friday meetings in Mr. Babich’s room.” 

Outside of school, Harlan works two jobs, at Ice and Field at the Crossover, and also as a camp director for a children’s sports camp. As a director, Harlan organizes and runs all the registration for the camp, which averages to about 70 kids a day, and starts up every time there’s a break in the school year. As a general rink attendant, Harlan works the front and runs the hockey rink. 

“I work with kids a lot,” Harlan said. “So I babysit constantly, but I just love working with kids – I do PALS as well at the school, which is really fun for me. “[Kids] are such an innocent group. It is really easy for them to see the good in the world and it always cheers me up. It’s also just fun to go roll out in the mud and have fun like a child again with other children – that’s just really cool, especially since I take on so much sometimes. I can get really stressed, so being able to just let loose is perfect for me.”

Harlan plans on studying Biochemistry at the University of Missouri. She plans to use her degree to either go Pre Med or go into veterinary sciences to get a DVM, or Doctor of Veterinary Medicine. 

“[After that], I plan to hopefully go back and minor in business and get my MBA,” Harlan said. “[I want to] start my own veterinary clinic. I have always held a deep love for science and I love animals. I love helping them.”

Along with her passion for kids, animals and leadership, Harlan said she is excited for wherever the future takes her. 

“I have a lot to look forward to,” Harlan said. “I think a lot isn’t planned, but that’s kind of the best part because I’m just figuring it out as I go. I love being busy and having a plan, but at the end of the day, sometimes it’s nice to just not know where life is taking you and go with it. I’m excited for college, I think it’s going to be a new experience. It’s definitely going to be throwing myself into a different pool and demographic of people and I’m just going to go with the flow.”