Senior Spotlight: Alex Allen

Photo+by+Luke+Williamson

Photo by Luke Williamson

Jessica Mick, Guest Writer
May 21, 2018

On the first Monday of every month, senior Alex Allen sprints from soccer practice to the lecture hall to lead the National Honor Society meeting as their president. Over the past four years of high school, Allen has been no stranger to balancing her involvements as she has taken 23 Pre-AP and AP classes, led honor societies and played on the varsity girls soccer team. 

Between everything she does, Allen says that a big part of her decision to pursue academia is because of her love of learning.

“I think it stems from curiosity,” Allen said. “I’m interested in everything about everything, whether that’s the evolution of language or biology, or astrophysics. The whole universe is just so fascinating to me and I want to know as much about it as I can.”

While she currently serves as president of Rho Kappa Honor Society, vice president of Key Club, secretary of The Locker, student vice president of PTSA and student body vice president in Student Council, Allen says that leading did not always come easily to her. Allen says that she remembers it being difficult to pre-record her student council campaign speech for the Wolfcast during her freshman year.

“I freaked out, and I was just talking to a room of four people,” Allen said. “But now I do NHS and there’s like 200 people sometimes. I think I’ve definitely evolved as a leader over time, and I think more of that is gaining confidence and realizing that people aren’t there to judge you. If you’re a leader, you have a job to fulfill, you have a role that you’re in charge of, and you’re helping other people by leading.”

Allen says her confidence has improved dramatically since her freshman year and that being open to leadership positions is vital to developing these skills.

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Just because someone is successful in this or that, doesn’t mean you’re any less successful in anything you’ve done,

— Alex Allen

“A lot of that just come from having the role,” Allen said. “Having any kind of officer role, you get more and more experience dealing with larger groups of people until eventually you’re just fine talking to a bunch of people.”

When it comes to balancing all of her various activities, Allen finds it beneficial to avoid being too hard on herself.

“If you are involved in so many things, you’re going to have to accept that fact that you’re going to miss something some time,” Allen said. “You’re going to have to accept the fact that you can’t give your entire being to everything you do.”

Allen will be attending the University of Texas at Austin in the fall and will be majoring in journalism and partaking in the Plan II honors program. This is a liberal arts honors program exclusive to UT with a unique curriculum.   

Starting at a new school next year, Allen says that wherever she goes, it is important to value her own successes.

“Stop comparing your successes to other people successes,” Allen said. “Just because someone is successful in this or that, doesn’t mean you’re any less successful in anything you’ve done.”