welcome back to dr tau's youtube channel
this is dr chao wu from howard county board
of education
in this channel i'm going to interview
high school graduates
from howard county public school system
i want them to share their experience
and their challenges their achievements
and their advice
for our incoming high school students
this youtube channel
will be folk we are focused on student
voice and student
experience i hope this interview will
help you
both the parents are students to
navigate through the high school life
today we are going to interview
mr chelsea baker she graduated from
river hill
2020 she will join harvard university
her major is undecided so welcome
chelsea can you have a self introduction
thank you for having me um so as you
said my name is chelsea baker
i'm a graduate of river hill high school
i have been
in the howard county public school
system since i was in kindergarten so i
went to
dave notes elementary school and then i
went to lyme kill middle school
and then river hill high school and i've
had a really pleasant
um education within the school system
i've had a lot of support from my
teachers and peers and it's just been a
really great experience
um i'm very interested in
knowledge like reading and just learning
from different people
so i've really loved watching this
series and seeing all the different
perspectives from different students
and yeah thank you for having me okay
chelsea thank you very much for your
time
to speak with me my first question for
you what
was your biggest challenge in your
senior year how do you overcome that
so i would say that my biggest challenge
during my senior year
would probably be the first two months
of it
because just because i was balancing so
much so
i was the captain one of the captains of
my
school's varsity soccer team which was a
lot of pressure because we were coming
off of
three consecutive state championships so
there's a lot of pressure on getting the
fourth
did you get that no we didn't
it's okay though oh so
i was the varsity soccer captain and
then i also had
to deal with all my college applications
and preparing all that and i had to
focus on schoolwork
because that still goes on during the
fall and then i also had all my
extracurriculars in my social life and
balancing family
so that was just a really difficult time
because there was so much for me to
focus on at once
and a lot of times it did feel
overwhelming
um but i think that whole period
it taught me a lot about time management
and how to allocate my time to the
things that i really care about and the
things that matter to me
um and that's definitely a skill that
i'll take to college just because
college is such a fluid schedule it's
not as rigid as high school
um so having that experience where i
really had to test my time management i
think is really going to
help me in the future i see some for
sharing that
i think another difference for college
you don't have parents right
besides at your back to say okay you do
this do that do that right
okay my second question for you what was
your biggest challenge
in your whole high school year like four
years
and how do you overcome that
um i would say my biggest challenge
through all of high school
was probably this one class it was ap
chemistry which i took during my junior
year
and i use usually school subjects come
to me
um i would say pretty easily like
um when i was in elementary middle
school i didn't really have to
work too hard for my grades and i'm not
trying to um
like flex anything i just didn't
struggle as much with school work
but this one year in high school was
probably the hardest year of school that
i've been through so far and i'm not
naturally good at science so it was a
big change for me
um it was really difficult i wasn't
getting the grades that i wanted to
at least in the beginning of the year um
but once i hit my stride it taught me
how to be a better student
how to pay better attention in class and
be more effective
um and then halfway through the year i
started picking up the material a lot
more
um and i could already see a
transformation
transformation of me as a student from
the beginning to the end of the year
um so even though i was really difficult
i'm glad that i persevered through it
i'm glad i didn't drop the class because
that was just
a really invaluable experience that i
don't think i would have gotten
if i didn't allow myself to be
challenged i see
so probably you choose the wrong course
how to say that
but you overcome the difficulty really
major yes and that changes the way you
deal with
other difficult topics
thanks for sharing that and do you have
a very one unique academic experience
for example one class one project and
one seminar beyond your chemistry class
um my most unique academic experience
probably came from stuff that i didn't
even do in school
so over the summer after my freshman and
sophomore year
my mom had me go to academic camps i
called them
nerd camps just because you go to the
different college and you do a lot of
learning
um you go to different classes so
i went to one at the naval academy
which i would say was a really
interesting experience because at the
time
it was i was considering going to a
military academy
just because i shared a lot of values
like i value
athleticism i value hard work and
academics which seemed to
align with what the naval academy was
doing
but then i learned about um having to
serve in the military afterwards
which was a little bit of a deal breaker
for me but um
going to that camp i got to take a bunch
of really cool stem classes
from really like esteemed professors
um and i got to meet different students
from all around the country and even
students from all around the world
um and so that was a really unique
experience that i was glad i got to have
um i know a lot of other students don't
get to go to these
nerd camps but um that was really just a
great experience and i
i still talked to some people i met
there that was just a really
great camp thanks for sharing that so
camps can be important right because
that provides something you're not
experiencing in your school
exactly so did you ever experience cyber
bullying
or your friend that you spring that and
uh can you share some
experience on that um
i didn't experience a lot of it but i do
remember one scenario back when i was in
middle school probably when i was in
seventh or eighth grade
where um
i was on this platform have you ever
heard of um ask fm
no that's okay i'll explain it to you
um so it's basically this social media
platform
i don't think it's very popular now but
people can send you
anonymous questions and then you can
answer them and it posts for everyone to
see
and so i was getting some questions from
i still don't know who it was just
because it wasn't completely anonymous
but they were attacking me and saying
that like
i was like unattractive or they're
saying like i wasn't that smart and like
they're just
saying a lot of things are really coming
from my character and like things that i
was insecure about
and so naturally i became even more
insecure about those things
and it really was hurtful that the
person who was saying that
couldn't even say it to my face they
were going to say it from behind the
screen
and i think it would have helped me a
lot to be able to talk to that person
and like
delve into it but because i didn't know
who they were i just felt very
helpless in that situation um
so yeah that was really difficult and i
had a lot of insecurity stem from that
so i would definitely not wish that upon
any other students and i know that
other students in the county have had
even worse experiences than me
um where it's led to like self-harm or
even suicide which is
so disheartening um
and it's just a really sad experience
especially just because
you can't deal with it in person it's
completely online so it's really out of
your control
i'm sorry to hear that so how did he
overcome that
um i think it took a while to completely
overcome it
but it was in part my friends who helped
me
and then also me being like
introspective
and figuring out that these things
weren't true and someone was just saying
them because like
it was just really easy for them to say
like i don't i don't even know if they
really meant it
but i figured out that their opinion
doesn't really matter as much as my
opinion of myself so i just decided to
work on that more
in terms of like self-love yeah i see
something for sharing that
because cyberbullying usually happens
behind the keyboard right
you really there's a real person there
who know you or not know you
and to be strong definitely the one part
to overcome that
at the same time i just want to remind
our audience
if you ever experienced that or your
friends explained that
please make sure you seek support from
the school system
we have a robust framework to deal with
the situation to offer the help
and my next question for you is so do
you have any advice
for incoming high school students for
example maybe you get some advice when
you enter high school
right now after you finish the high
school you look back
you you found something very unique to
yourself and you want to share with
our new students um
one big piece of advice that i would
give to incoming high school freshmen
this is something that my mom told me is
i was entering high school
and i was a bit skeptical of it at first
i thought it was weird she told me
that it was really important to talk to
my guidance counselor
and create a relationship with them um
and i think in elementary middle school
it's not really as necessary to have a
relationship with your guidance
counselor just because
um they're working with a lot more
students so it's harder to have like a
really personal relationship with them
but because in high school there's so
many counselors at each school
it's a lot easier to build that
relationship um
and my mom was saying that if anything
was happening in my life
where there was no one else like my
friends or my family i couldn't talk to
them
i would at least have an adult a trusted
adult where i would be able to talk to
them if i built that foundation
so even though it seemed weird to me at
first i did end up
going to talk to my guidance counselor
during lunch and after school
we ended up becoming really close and
i'm really glad that
i created that relationship and
i'm sure it also helped in terms of
college because they do end up writing
a letter of recommendation for you so
even though it did help me that way it
also helped
to have him as a resource whenever
something was going on in my life i just
felt like i could easily talk to him
about it
so i would encourage freshmen to do the
same to create that relationship with
your guidance counselor
i see so do you want to share some extra
curriculum activities
okay um so at my school
i was very involved with with athletics
so
i played varsity soccer for all four
years
um three state championships
um and i ran indoor and outdoor track
my freshman and sophomore year and then
also my senior year
even though our outdoor season got cut
short um
i decided not to run my junior year just
because i had a very
overwhelming schedule and then i also
had other stuff going on outside of
school
um so my junior year i was taking six ap
classes
you can only take seven classes that was
definitely very overwhelming
um and i was also playing club soccer
for this team called maryland united
and all of our practices were at least
30 minutes away so i didn't have the
time to
do everything i wanted to do that year
um
but i was very involved in sports and
that's one of my
most important things in high school
that was one of my best experiences
um i was also involved in my school's
chapter of delta scholars
so this year i was one of our
co-presidents and so we held a lot of
events we had like discussions
um we had meetings in school and then
outside of school
and just a really great community to
have
other um black students that
i could relate to um especially in river
hill where
we don't have don't necessarily have
as much diversity as other schools might
it was good to have that community of
people
i also i was part of sga in my freshman
and sophomore year i was my class
secretary
and so doing fundraisers through sga it
helped me um
a lot with team building skills learning
how to work with other people
so i did some other things but those are
my main extracurriculars that i was
really devoted to
i see it's kind of pretty busy
yeah very busy okay
so why choose harvard why you didn't
decide your
major yet um so the main reason i chose
harvard those questions kind of go hand
in hand for me because
harvard when i went to visit they were
talking about how much
they care about the learning experience
for students and they didn't want
students just to be focused on
only learning in their major they want
students to be able to explore all these
different topics
and all these different subject areas
and that was something that was really
appealing to me
as someone who doesn't necessarily know
exactly what i want to do with my life
um i just know that i love to learn i
love to gather information
and that was something that they
emphasized a lot and i really identified
with that
that's probably my main reason for
choosing as well as like the prestige
and like the um
academic intensity which i think will be
really good for me
um and the location boston is beautiful
um and i would say that i'm undecided
just because i have so many interests
that don't seem like they go hand in
hand
and i'm sure like through my studies i
can find some sort of intersection
between them
so i would say my top three majors as of
right now would be
government applied math and
i would say engineering which all seem
like they're just
oh and neuroscience which just all seem
like they're across the board like
completely
completely different from each other but
i hope to find some sort of intersection
that i can study where like all my needs
are fulfilled somehow
great so busting can be cold in winter i
just wanted
yes and my mom made sure that i got a
good coat
they don't have air conditioner i
remember that oh
yeah i've heard it gets really hot in
the dorms
and i really wish you good luck
eventually find the major you love and
you really
will and good luck to your career in the
future
i really appreciate that thank you okay
so do you have a new device for hcpss
so where they can change where they can
improve
um i would say that first of all
i think that https does a really amazing
job with their students
um i think that they really show how
much they care about
students and the students getting being
able to learn and have this whole
school experience um
and all shapes and forms because it's
different for everyone
um i would say that
so i just want to preface that there are
so many things i love about being at
howard county school
it was amazing there's so many resources
um
it's just a great experience and i would
say the main
my main criticism of howard county
public schools
would be i would say lack of discussion
or like lack of uncomfortable
conversations
um i think sometimes
when stuff that was probably considered
like
i guess like racist or like prejudiced
towards some groups it would sometimes
get
swept under the rug and i think now what
we're realizing
especially over the past few months as a
country i think we're realizing that
these uncomfortable discussions are more
important than ever
if you want everyone to feel like
they're safe and secure in their
environment
um and so i think it's really important
that in the coming years
hcpss is willing to have those
discussions so that all the students
feel included
sometimes as a black student
in a lot of predominantly white schools
i felt a little bit ostracized
and sometimes it was a bit hard to find
other people that could relate to my
experiences
as a black student um and so i think
it's really important for
the school system to continue to have
those discussions so that students don't
have to feel like
how i felt sometimes and that they
always do have someone to talk to or
someone that can relate to their
experience
um but
even though i did have moments like that
there were other moments where i felt so
supported by my teachers and my friends
um so it really it goes both ways but
i would just say in those times where i
was struggling i really wish that
there was someone that would have been
able to talk about those difficult
things with me
and i think that in the future if the
school system can find a way
to be there for those students
everything will just be
amazing i think it will be really great
for the entire school system
something for sharing that i i agree
with you that the school system should
be
able to provide the safe and i think
it's really safe learning environment
but when the students feel
maybe sometimes not supported or not
included in the discussion
the school should think about how to
support them and make sure
they can feel they are included her and
then
get the help they need yeah
thank you for sharing that so do you
have some clothing remarks
um yes so
i would say one of the biggest things i
learned in high school
is to have an open mind um
i think going into high school i was a
little bit
closed off i had a lot of preconceptions
about different people in different
groups um
and even different like subjects in
school that i ended up
really loving and enjoying and so i
would just say
especially to incoming freshmen just to
keep an open mind
to um pursue interest in things that
you're interested in
um just because you don't know where
it'll take you or how it'll end up like
some of my best friends now are people
that i never would have
imagined myself talking to but i'm so
glad i did because now they're like
these great friendships
or some classes i didn't think i'd take
like i didn't think i'd take ap chem
and that turned out
i would say it turned out well um
so i would just say being open to new
experiences is just such a crucial skill
and i hope i think
the earlier that people learn that the
better quality of life they're going to
have because it really extends to all
parts of your life i think that's a
really important
skill to learn so open to something kind
of open your mind
open to new scenes because in your whole
life you may
get in touch with new people new career
new environment right so that kind of
skill for you to be able to
accept the new stuff and then adapt to
that new environment
really help you set it down easily and
do the best
in your site yeah
thanks for sharing that i really
appreciate your time and
i i really hope you good luck in your
university life
chelsea and thank you for our audience
thank you very much for tuning in
so this is dr chao's youtube channel i
will continue
to interview our high school graduates i
want
you to hear their voice and their story
i hope their story and
experience will help you to navigate
your high school life thank you very
much
chelsea thank you so much for having me
okay have a nice day bye bye me too bye
