Isabella Checa thinks of herself as a fiercely independent and strong eighth grader, having taken on the challenges of middle school and ready for the challenges of high school. As a current eighth grader, she has been at Heritage since sixth grade; she left her previous school of Park Trails Elementary after her brother received a scholarship to Heritage. Since attending Heritage, she describes Spanish as her favorite subject, saying it’s the most fun with the most relatable teachers.
Outside of school, she did gymnastics for three years, with her biggest accomplishment as 5th place in her first gymnastics competition. After quitting gymnastics for financial reasons, she danced for three years, primarily focused on hip hop classes, yet had to stop because of COVID. “I hope to return to dance once everything opens up because I really enjoyed dancing,” Checa said. She plans to audition for the Patriot dancers when she enters high school next year.
For fun, Checa enjoys drawing. She often draws sketches on paper, looking up tutorials from youtube on drawing to copy. She also describes one of her favorite pastimes as singing, often doing so with friends with a special love for R&B. For charity, she volunteers for service hours each Christmas with her church by giving presents to homeless children, helping in a fish fry and serving food to the homeless.
At school, she looks forward to seeing and talking to her friends. Citing that as one of her favorite parts of school, it was her motivation for returning to school in the first quarter, despite COVID-19 fears. Checa is overall excited for classes in high school, pointing at the new freedom she hopes to get and the friends in higher grades she can now talk to. Yet, she is nervous about the difficulty of the classes, making it a priority to work hard to keep straight As.
When older, she wants to be a lawyer. “It seems like a stable job and I am told I am good at arguing.” Her goal is to finish the pre law program in high school to prepare her for her desired career. As motivation in her law journey, she cites her role model as her mom, explaining her as inspirational.
Even though her family is from the Dominican Republic, she has yet to visit the country. This year, she hopes to go to the Dominican Republic on her birthday at the beginning of the summer with her best friend, eighth grader Isabella Machado. There, they plan to snorkel, parasail and ride horses in gardens as they relax before a much anticipated high school experience.
