Q: Please state your name, grade and academy.

A: I’m Hanna Payne, I’m a senior, and I’m in the International Baccalaureate Academy.

Q: Name three adjectives that you think best describe you.

A: Determined, optimistic, and creative.

Q: Tell us a bit about yourself.

A: I am extremely involved at Gables, and I love being a Cavalier. I’ve been on the Varsity Swim team for four years and I love to swim. I have been a swimmer since I was about ten years old, and I’ve grown up in the ocean, so I’m really interested in marine science. I want to study Environmental Science with a focus on either Ecology or Marine Biology.

Q: What extracurricular activities are you involved in within the school?

A: I’m on the Varsity Swim team. I’m also on the Yearbook Staff, and I’m in Student Activities. I’m also a member of NHS, IBHS, [Gables Earth], and I was in Interact for two years.

Q: Do you hold any leadership positions in the organizations mentioned above?

A: I’m Editor-in-Chief of the Yearbook, and I have held an editorial position since the second half of my freshman year; I was Sports Editor and Assistant Editor-in-Chief. I’m also Student Council Treasurer in Student Activities, and I’m a board member of Gables Earth, as well as the founder of the Coral Lab Project of Gables Earth.

Q: Are you involved in any activities outside of school?

A: I’m on a club swim team called Miami Swimming based out of Ransom Everglades, and so I swim competitively year-round. I’m also in a community service organization called Twenty Little Working Girls, which I’ve been in since my freshman year.

Q: What motivates you to excel as student and as a person?

A:I think I’m motivated by, I know this sounds cliche, but by my passions. I’ve always been extremely interested in the ocean, so everything I do, in some way, revolves around the water. It’s kind of what has motivated me to become involved in school so that I can share my passions with other students and give them the same opportunities that I’ve had growing up. Also, just the prospect of being able to find a career in something that I love has motivated me to become involved, to try my hardest, and always try my best.

Q: So you’re a senior; what has the college application process been like?

A: It’s been really stressful, it’s been crazy. You know, no one really prepares you as much as they should have. Everyone says it’s hard, it’s difficult but it’s really, really hard. It just is. It takes a long time, and you don’t realize it until you’re done and think: Thank God I have so much free time now! And I’m finally done with mine, so that’s great.

Q: So, I hear you have been accepted into Stanford University. How do you feel about this?

A: It was crazy. I really didn’t think I was going to get accepted, and I found out at swim practice with like one of my best friends. So I kind of screamed and cried at the same time. And it was probably my number one choice, so I’m really, really excited. And I just love the school, and I can’t believe it. I’m still in shock.

Q: What do you like about the school? What interested you about it?

A: They have a great Environmental Science program, and just the kind of the research opportunities that a really good undergraduate and graduate school like that has available. Since I’m involved in sciences and I want to be really involved, I also wanted a school that was going to be very liberal and not something huge, because I like a smaller setting. Also, like California, that’s all I can say.

Q: Do you plan on attending?

A: I’m waiting to hear back from two other schools; one of them I applied for a scholarship program, the Robertson Scholar’s Program at Duke. If I got that scholarship program, I would probably chose Duke juts because it was an awesome opportunity. And then the other school I really, really love is Pomona. I didn’t really think I was going to get in to Stanford, so I convinced myself that Pomona was definitely my number one and fell in love with it. So, I think if I got into both I would have a really tough time deciding.

Q: What do you think influenced your acceptance the most?

A: I think my essays probably stood out. Like, when you’re writing essays for college apps, Ms. Stack and college counselors always tell you, you want to love your essays when you’re done. And I really loved my Stanford essays, like I still go back and read them and I still go : “Wow, I really like that.” I just like reading it, it’s fun to read.

Q: What advice would you give those interested in applying in the future?

A: Be yourself. The questions are very general and you need to find a way to make them specific to you, and don’t ever make it broad. Try to make it very specific, to really show your personality through your essays. Also, pour your heart into everything that you do, you don’t need to be over involved but everything that you do do make sure that you’re doing it from the right place and that you’re trying your hardest in what you’re doing. And then, just keep going; it gets really stressful and you have like mini panic attacks but like you have to move on from those panic attacks and be like: “It’s okay, because the panic is not going to go away until I finish this.”

Q: Thank you.

A: No problem.