My first Publication Alumni Magazine21-online | Página 19

ISSUE 21, JUNE 2019
What is the life of a senior such as yourself like today?
I’ve been pretty busy the whole year. It has been an amazing
experience to have a senior year in which we’ve been doing
everything and until now I almost haven’t had a single
moment to consider that I’m graduating. I’ve been organizing
FISSION and it has taken a lot of my energy, both physical
and psychological. I was President of the Model UN club,
Chair of one of the committees at the ACS MUN conference,
I’ve been going to math and physics competitions which also
requires a lot of preparation. I’ve been going to other clubs,
just to relax. Those were my main things this year.
Sounds like a busy year!
Yes, really, and this is on top of my applications, writing
essays, and school life, which we all know is not easy at ACS.
So, you mentioned essays and applications, what is
next for you?
Next year I’m going to be studying at MIT.
Wow! Congratulations!
Thank you! I couldn’t believe
it myself! I remember the
morning when it happened.
As the results are released at 1
AM, my mother was asking me
the previous evening if I was
going to stay up to receive the
decisions as I had applied early.
Then I looked at her: “No, why
would I waste any sleep on that, I know what would happen.
Nobody from ACS has been accepted in, like, forever, only
one has in the past. Why would I even think about it, I could
tell you now what they are going to tell me.” And then I woke
up at 6 AM in the morning and my first thought was: “They
are out. The results are out!” Then I scolded myself: “What
are you doing? You know what will happen. You know that
you are not accepted.” And I started thinking about reasons
why I should look at them at all. Then I started reading and
the first sentence goes like: “We are very proud to…” And
in my mind I finished the sentence with: “have had such a
bright pool of candidates.” Or something along those lines.
I thought this was how it was going to end. And instead, it
was something like: “We are very proud to accept you.” I was
like “What?!” And I read the sentence maybe 5 times, until
I understood that it was actually true. For the rest of that
day I kept thinking: “They made a mistake. They didn’t really
mean that. Something must be wrong with the system.”
I did on my own, mostly. As an ACS student it must be
FISSION because we created such a wonderful event and
it was quite large. I don’t think many people have such an
experience throughout their whole lives – to prepare such an
event and to be responsible for so many things and people
and for the final result. It was a very interesting and unique
experience and just seeing it come to life with no major
issues made me very happy. We held a wonderful opening
ceremony, which featured performances from ACS singers,
some speeches, remarks from Dr. Ewing, then we held a
reception and all this was never done for FISSION before.
And it went without mistakes, mostly. Everyone got what
they were supposed to – certificates, gifts, everything. And
I was so proud just to see this come to life. After the event
people came over to me and thanked me for what we did.
Even some little kids came and thanked us for organizing it
and promised us to show up next year as well.
That is quite the thing. I attended on Saturday and I
loved it. We’ve had a Science Fair tradition since 1996,
but what you guys are doing with FISSION is going
above and beyond to make ACS more open to others as
well. It’s just incredible. It’s a wonderful way for Alumni
to keep in touch as well! You
might be judging next year!
“ I want to be making satellites
and outer space projects that
expand human knowledge.”
Wow! I meant to ask you about your proudest moment
at ACS, but is it safe to assume this is it, or was it
something else?
Well, this is an amazing moment, but not so much as an ACS
student, but more so as something about me. Something
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We’ve had previous organizers
come and judge, especially
the junior category. None of
the organizers until now have
graduated from college, so
they come only for the Junior
participants (Junior High Schoolers). And I’d love to do that,
because even in the Junior category we have such wonderful
projects. There are students in the 4th and 5th grades who
come in and know what they are doing. They have done the
electrical circuits on their own, or like, this one girl this year
– a whole guitar. So, they’ve had many interesting projects in
all categories. I really hope that the future teams manage to
draw in a wide variety of different projects as well.
It was very funny – around FISSION, I was receiving calls
from all over Bulgaria, and I had started to pick up the
phone with: “Hello, this is FISSION speaking?” (laughs)
Sounds like FISSION is where it’s at for you. You have
been involved with a lot of things at ACS. Do you have
one true passion though?
I love all of those things. All of those things that have made
news at ACS are actually things I’ve spent a lot of time
preparing. They are part of my life, of who I am and they
have built me to be a very different person. Coming to
ACS, I was quite introverted, I was very timid, I couldn’t
speak in front of people. Then I joined the Model United
Nations club and this year, especially with FISSION, being
in a leadership role and in charge of so many people and
things that need to happen, it just builds you as a leader and