Amanda Mcleod '20 Recruiting Profile

Through my years at Garrison Forest, I have grown tremendously in soccer and school. I have always had a passion for soccer and learning new things, but throughout the entirety of middle school I had a minor struggle trying to balance the two. When I first arrived at Garrison I was determined to change that. I knew I would have to miss some days here and there for soccer tournaments and games. That required incredible ability to balance school and soccer. I had to focus really hard both on and off the field. I wrote all outside events in my planner and kept track of homework. I even went to ARC, the Academic Resource Center, for all of my frees to help me. I was determined to succeed. At first I was struggling to balance everything but as I kept working at it I eventually got the hang of it, it began to become easier and easier.

By my sophomore year I was confident enough in my growing abilities that I decided to apply for a course overload. This meant not having a free block and instead taking another class. That year I wanted to be able to continue from Digital Game Design class one to class two, and still be able to learn new instruments in Band and Vocals. I gave in a form with reasons they should accept me and had to have meetings with my advisor to make it work. I met with my advisor to discuss my plan of action, and petitioned the dean of students just to apply for the course overload, an option that few students are allowed to do. I am now completely confident in my ability to balance my outside life and school. For my junior year I have once again been allowed to have a course overload. I will be taking WISE, Women In Science and Engineering, in addition to my other classes. The WISE program allows students to apply to be able to work in a lab alongside scientist for a semester, assisting with lab work, writing journals and doing a presentation at the end. The experience that I have built up has prepared me to be be able to balance school, soccer, work and who knows what else to make my college experience the best it could be.