All-Area Academic Excellence Team: Price, Sage, Seto

May 8—Hadley Price

—Parents: Brad and Amy Price.

—School: Galena High School.

—Planned career field: Physical therapy.

—Long-range goals: Open my own physical therapy practice and travel.

—Advice to freshmen for academic success: Challenge yourself. If you procrastinate, your quality of work is likely to go down. Work hard now so you can reap the benefits later.

—Inspiring educator: One educator who really inspired me was Mrs. Lori Simmons. Mrs. Simmons is an educator who really cares. She cares about the future and well-being of the students that she comes into contact with. She has inspired me because of the way she treats everyone. She is always willing to listen if you need to talk about anything. I hope to end up having the patience when I am dealing with people like she does. She has inspired me by always pushing me to do my best. She is an encourager and motivator.

Brylee Sage

—Parents: Tony and Gina Sage.

—School: Seneca High School.

—Planned career field: Counseling.

—Long-range goals: My long-range goals includes counseling academic excellence at the college level, living a life of hard work and initiative in order to fuel success, and creating a career of empowering individuals to realize their God-given value.

—Advice to freshmen for academic success: Create a habit of hard work and do your very best at everything you are involved in. Challenge yourself with more difficult classes, and apply yourself to your studies. Don't procrastinate. Stay focused on your goals and value opportunities to expand your mind.

—Inspiring educator: One educator who inspired me was Sean Wilson, my fourth grade teacher. On the first day of fourth grade, he gave our class a speech about how our actions mattered and told us that the efforts we put into our education now would impact our future. He reminded us that our elementary education was preparing us for middle school, junior high, high school, college and finally for a job that we could use to impact the world. A switch flipped in my mind that day, and since then I have given my best efforts to my education and striven to be the very best I can be. Another teacher who has inspired me is Maggie Beachner, my art teacher in high school. She has taught me most by the example she sets through the way she lives. She is always kind and genuinely cares about the well-being of her students. She has strong character and pays attention to those who are struggling and puts forth the effort needed to help her students succeed. I have had many wonderful educators, and I want to thank each and every one of them for their positive impacts on my life.

Samantha Seto

—Parents: Jane Seto and David Seto.

—School: Thomas Jefferson Independent Day School.

—Planned career field: Undecided.

—Long-range goals: I will be attending Boston University in the fall and plan on majoring in neuroscience and philosophy and/or math. Being a student who has always been interested in multiple realms outside the classroom, at BU I intend on involving myself in BU's abundance of clubs, music opportunities, sports teams and student government. I also plan on attending graduate school, though I am unsure of the field at the moment.

—Advice to freshmen for academic success: Find a source of motivation. Whether that is focusing on a specific goal, genuinely taking interest in your classes, finding a college you are excited to attend, or just purely wanting to push yourself and do well, let that source inspire you and help you want to work hard. Also, know there is always time, so take your time with things and enjoy the little successes along the way.

—Inspiring educator: My sophomore AP European history teacher and senior year humanities teacher, Mr. David Harris, helped me discover my appreciation for courses that I didn't particularly enjoy before because I wasn't as good at them. I have always been a student who generally enjoyed all the classes I took, but for most of my life, I was only ever interested in science and math because those were the only ones I was good at. The more artistic courses of history and English never really spoke to me as the more concrete, rules-based courses of math and science did. I never had these "wow, that is so cool" moments in history like I did in math when finding out a cool equation. When I took AP European history my sophomore year, I wasn't expecting anything cool; I just wanted to get myself through the course. Throughout the year, however, I did have those "wow, that is so interesting" moments. I was fascinated by the connections and themes Mr. Harris taught us that year in AP Euro and actually took interest in the course. While history and English may not come to me as easily as math does, I have learned to get over the "not being interested in it because I am not good at it" mindset and have learned to just enjoy those classes for and in themselves. My love for all subjects has even translated to my intended major as Boston University, where I have chosen a neuroscience and philosophy major.