My name is Sophie and I am a sophomore at the Academy of Arts and Academics, or A3. All in all, I am a pretty normal teenage girl. I love hanging out with my friends and playing late night games of Apples to Apples and singing at the top of our lungs with my family. I love listening to music. Some of my favorite bands/ artists are The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Franz Ferdinand, Jack Johnson, Led Zeppelin, The Kooks, Michael Jackson, The Shins, and Jimi Hendrix. I mostly listen to classic rock, however there are some new bands and other genres that I listen to. I also like watching movies. I have come to the conclusion that you can tell a lot about a person by the movies they like. My three top favorite movies are Crooklyn, Faris Buller’s Day Off, and Little Miss Sunshine. I love my friends, but surprisingly, I don’t like to talk on the phone all that much.

I love theater. That is the reason I came to A3. I am what you might call a theater geek. I love it all. The thrill of being on stage in the spotlight, the joy of having all my lines memorized, and the feeling of being dressed in the amazing costumes and makeup. I have always been interested in theater, ever since I was cast as the lead in my first grade class play, which was just a short, twenty minute fairy tale. My favorite characters that I have played are Puck, or Robin Goodfellow, in A Midsummer Night’s Dream in eighth grade and Ruth Condomine in Blithe Spirit. As well as being a theater geek, I also love to dance. I have been trained in ballet, modern, jazz, and african. I also go to a summer musical theater camp every summer, where I dance musical style! I have also taken a gymnastics/dance class at the EDGE.

I love A3. It has made me a much better actor, dancer and student. The teachers are great, and I love how the students are on a first name basis with them. I also enjoy how there are two classes combined into one block. For the freshmen and sophomores, in Humanities, which is a mix of history and literature, we have been learning about The Russian Revolution. While Josh gives us the facts and history of it, Scott gives us chapters of Animal Farm to read. In Inquiries, which is a mix of math and science, we have learned about the Universe, drugs and the science of drugs, and gravity. Danny and Aaron switch off teaching science and they both teach math. The juniors have been learning about chocolate in Humanities and they made a pin hole camera in Inquiries.

I am so happy that my parents found out about A3. The beginning of my freshmen year was spent at Marist High School, where I was the outcast. Once I heard about A3, I was wary to try it out in the middle of the year because everyone already had friends and I thought they would ignore me. I was wrong. Everyone accepted me into the school and the teachers helped me to catch up with work. Art has helped me to be who I am and I am glad that there is a school that can help nourish the art in my life.