Mikani Telles '24 Recruiting Profile

If the word “rebellious” does not shout out the typical stereotypical association to “youngest-child-syndrome”, I do not know what does. Born the youngest child of a family of 4 children, I am far from the child with the rebellious characteristics. In fact, I am quite the opposite of rebellious. As the youngest child, I learned to adopt certain adaptive characteristics such as having perceptiveness, leadership, and practical skills which have made me a better player and team mate..

Like sitting in the back of a room, the ability to have a perception of your surroundings is something I (as the youngest child) naturally learned growing up. I was fortunate to grasp the advantages of being the youngest child of the family by attaining knowledge from learning the experiences of my older siblings—good and bad—especially watching them make decisions that influenced their status with our upper guidance (our parents). I knew what I needed to avoid to help guide my good and smart decision-making. It is this advantage that guides me through my years in school and outside of school that has molded me to be a good decision-maker and understand the consequences of my actions. With these influences from my upbringing, perceptive analysis is what guides me as a person to make good decisions at home, in school, and as an athlete. I have always been told by my soccer coaches that I have great perception of the field because I am able to analyze first before I act. These influences have guided my role being in the Student Body Leadership Program for 6 years, as an athlete for 12 years in High School and Club Soccer Program (having started at age 5 years of age), 4 years of High School Track and Field, and 2 years of High School Cross Country.

I learned to become a person that takes accountability and responsibility for my decisions and actions, and I learned to communicate effectively when needing to voice my opinion, yet, listen and understand. For that reason, I was chosen to be the Vice-President of the Student Body of the Renaissance while in my Senior year of High School.  I was also chosen to be the Varsity Soccer Captain for my Junior and Senior years.