Personal Statement
My name is Steven Sparks and I am a Junior at Aberdeen High School in Maryland.
I have always aspired to play at the highest level possible, no matter the work or effort required. My goal is to receive a good education while playing at a very challenging level and being a strong, positive influence on the field.
Most of my life I have been involved in Scouts, from being a Tiger Scout at age 7 to still being in Boy Scouts and working on my Eagle project. Morals, codes, and involvement in the community have been ingrained in me since I was a child. The feeling of helping others while bettering yourself and the environment is unmatched by anything. Through Scouts I have learned to be very hardworking, which transfers to both sports and academics.
One of my most prominent traits is my competitiveness. I do not like losing or not being the best as I can be. I hate knowing I could have done more or that I could have put in more effort. This drives me to constantly put in everything I have to produce the best results and progress myself further in training. This competitive nature drives me to be determined and to never quit.
I have been playing soccer nearly my entire life, since I was four years old, and my love for it has only amplified with time. During the soccer season, I attend daily high school practices, club practices, games for both, and my own personal goalkeeper trainer. This enables me to be constantly getting better and increasing my fitness and endurance. Coming into high school I made the varsity team as a freshman and shared time with the senior goalkeeper. Since then I have been the starting varsity goalkeeper for my school and have every intention of keeping my position for the rest of my high school years.
Academically I have always been working hard and challenging myself. I was in the first class our elementary school tested for a new advanced learning program which brought in teachers who challenged us and held us to a higher standard. Since then I have stayed in accelerated learning while holding primarily straight A’s throughout my middle school experience. During this time, I was selected as the Carson Scholarship nominee due to my high GPA and community service, beating out others from my age and two years older.
I now attend the Science and Mathematics Academy which is a college preparatory program that “provides academically talented students with educational experiences that integrate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) beyond the traditional advanced program.” Unique to the program is the four year course series, Science, Research, and Technology which integrates STEM into authentic research in regular contact with working scientist, engineers, and mathematicians. Only 55 students out of nearly 4,000 are selected to attend each year. Selection to this program is extremely competitive requiring multiple rounds of essays and examinations. The program is difficult with a 13% dropout rate per year in my first two years. For more information see: http://www.scienceandmathacademy.com/about/profile.pdf
I am enrolled in many AP classes and most of those which are not AP are Honors classes. This allows me to constantly challenge myself academically and learn at a higher level than most of my peers. I have also been first chair saxophone for both my concert band and symphonic band for both years and will began as first chair this year. Through this I learned how to lead my section to sound the best by themselves, as a section, and then as part of the whole band. Coordinating individuals to benefit the whole took great effort but through it I learned a lot in leadership and methods of commanding and influencing people.
I believe that I would be a positive addition to a college’s academic and athletic community.
Watch my full game videos at www.youtube.com/channel/UCwX9XvSW5z4VHO8-hXHxdtA
