2015 graduate Sarah Rooney continues with academic achievements

Sarah Rooney was very focused on her grades and doing well in her classes all throughout high school.

“I was really hard on myself to live up to the academic expectations people had,” Rooney said.

Rooney was a very well rounded student. She was involved in soccer, Scholar’s Bowl, musical, spring play, choir, orchestra, jazz band and National Honors Society over the four year course.

With that wide range of extra circulars, Rooney also played a part in the academic clubs.

“I competed in Science Olympiad for three years, starting sophomore year,” Rooney said. “I also participated in Math Relays all four years.”

During Rooney’s junior and senior years she was indecisive on what she wanted to do.

“I fluctuated quite a bit,” Rooney said.

She desired to go out of state. Northwestern in Illinois was her first choice, but if she was going to stay in state then it would be to Kansas University (KU) in Lawrence.

In the end she ended up majoring in Psychology and minoring in Creative Writing at KU.

“It’s not quite what I expected, but now I can’t imagine myself doing anything else,” Rooney said.

During her past two years at KU Rooney’s views on her grades have changed.

“I think the biggest change I’ve made is with my mindset on grades,” Rooney said. “As long as I’m doing my best and learning the material, the actual letter grade doesn’t matter as much.”

One of Rooney’s goals during college is to experience as many things as possible.

“Whether that’s studying abroad, or taking a new class that sounds interesting, or just hanging out with all the great people I’ve met,” Rooney said. “I’m trying to enjoy my time in college, especially because classes can get stressful.”

Outside of classed and having fun with friends, Rooney is looking at the future and thinking about where she wants to go from where she is.

Rooney is involved in a research lab for children psychology and her goal with it is to get the most out of the experience as possible and to find other similar experiences that will help when she starts thinking about graduate school.

Rooney also takes time out of her schedule to help in the community.

“I’ve been volunteering more,” Rooney said. “It is kind of an extra-curricular goal, to get about 20 hours of volunteering at the animal shelter this semester.”

19kpotter@usd489.com