Personal Statement
My name is Alina Yamin. I am a student at Northside College Prep, a Chicago selective enrollment public high school with a national reputation for academic excellence. My education at Northside satisfies my desire to learn and experience new, exciting, and diverse things in a challenging environment. It also encourages me to set high standards of academic achievement that I strive diligently and successfully to meet by hard work and perseverance. Finally, although I value learning for its own sake, Northside is preparing me well to continue my education at a college or university that also will be stimulating intellectually and rigorous academically.
In addition to academics, basketball is my passion in life. I have played competitive basketball since I was in fifth grade, and I have made a serious commitment to learning the fundamentals and continuing to improve and develop my skills as an individual and a team player. While at Northside, I have started on the girls’ varsity basketball team since I was a freshman. On offense, I am the team’s shooting guard and its primary ballhandler and passer. As a co-captain during my sophomore and junior seasons, I also am a team leader. My involvement in basketball, however, is not limited to playing on my school team. I participate in AAU travel team basketball, play in pickup games and train on my own at the local YMCA, and follow the NBA closely. To put it simply, I love basketball, and I hope to continue learning about and playing the game for as long as I can.