Seniors earn early spots at top universities

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From England to California and everywhere in between, 16 seniors will soon begin their journeys as undergraduate learners, researchers, community members and thinkers at some of the top universities in the world.

Heritage held a photoshoot for the seniors Jan 30, where they had the opportunity to pose with their future college’s flag and talk about their hopes for the future. For some, this conclusion was the result of years of dreaming and hard work.

“Opening my acceptance letter was the most overwhelmingly positive feeling I have ever had… I was screaming, crying, shaking and so, so happy,” senior Kennedy Hack-Juman, who will be attending Washington University at St. Louis as a psychology major, said. For her, the choice to apply to a binding Early Decision program was easy: “I wanted a school with a strong psychology program so I could pursue my career in forensic psychology, and WashU had internships and research opportunities that would be perfect for me.”

Senior Joshua Dobrinsky, accepted to Cornell as a Global Development major, felt similarly pleased. “Seeing the confetti was one of the most rewarding feelings ever. It took a few days to process [that] I’m truly going to my top choice school, but I feel so lucky and grateful that I was given this opportunity,” he said. He further recounted that “Cornell has over 1,000 student organizations, including those that will allow [him] to continue passions [he] found through Heritage clubs.”

Below, find the complete list of early admits to top schools:

Barbara Bomfim – Northwestern University

Ana Chavez – Northwestern University

Yana Danzig – Cambridge University

Nicholas Darosa – Carnegie Mellon University

S Joshua Dobrinsky – Cornell University

Jacob Federici – University of Notre Dame

Sharon Fernandez Ramirez – University of Chicago

Ellaheh Gohari – Stanford University

Kennedy Hack-Juman – Washington University at St. Louis

Ethan Jiang – Vanderbilt University

Austin Klein – Vanderbilt University

Anya Pinto – Stanford University

Sophie Simon – Northwestern University

Zoe Weissman – Brown University

David Xiao – Vanderbilt University

Daniela Zaghul Schillaci – Georgetown University

From left to right, seniors Kennedy Hack-Juman, Barbara Bomfim, Sophie Simon, Joshua Dobrinsky, Austin Klein and David Xiao embrace their spontaneous sides with a dab as they show off their college flags. On why he chose Vanderbilt, Xiao, a musician, explained that the university has “one of the best music programs in the country” and that the “violin teacher [Xiao] will be working with is an awesome instructor.” (Photo submitted/Kennedy Hack-Juman)

The Patriot Post’s very own editors — seniors Anya Pinto, left, and Ellaheh Gohari, right — celebrate their acceptances to Stanford University. (Photo/Joshua Dobrinsky)

The seniors take photos in various locations around campus and film interviews about the college process. “One thing that stuck out [about the photo-taking process] was how many people were there [that] I didn’t know well, which just goes to show how many unique groups there are at Heritage,” senior Nicholas Darosa, a prospective math major at Carnegie Mellon, said. He continued, “I got to deeply explore both of my fields of interest before college through Heritage’s math competition program and computer science track.” (Photos/CADY provided by AHS and Ella Gohari)

Senior Ellaheh Gohari is entering her fourth (and sadly final) year on staff and third year as co-EIC of the Patriot Post. She loves learning new things and can often be found going down Wikipedia rabbit holes in search of random knowledge. Outside of room 25310, she serves as co-president to both the Girls Excelling in Math and Science club and the Science National Honor Society. A science-lover, she enjoys exploring the subject through research projects with UMiami, volunteer tutoring with OTTER and fact-checks with MediaWise. She hopes you enjoy your time reading the Patriot Post.