#1: From your prior portfolio work, what assignment (essay, project, presentation, discussion

score, etc.) are you most proud of? Why? Explain that assignment and why you feel most

successful.

Of all the work portfolio work I’ve done in English class, I am most proud of my

“Shooting Stars” essay from the poetry unit of senior year. In this assignment, I wrote a

commentary of a piece of poetry, designed in a similar format to the IOC in the sense that I had

no idea which poem I would be writing about that day. I distinctly remember sitting at my

computer at 2:30 right after finishing that essay thinking “this is it, I’ve peaked.” Of course, one

does not really ever truly peak, there’s always room for improvement, but this essay sure felt

pretty spectacular. I believe this was partly attributed to the fact that I was analyzing poetry,

something I’ve typically never enjoyed in the past but enjoyed tremendously this year. But what

truly made me feel successful was simply luck of the draw. This one happened to be the poem I

drew for the IOC. Having already written a full fledged commentary on it, I was excited heading

into the dreaded IOC room and performed better in there as a result. So for that reason, this essay

represents the direct impact of preparation in advance of major and important assessments, not

just another in class essay.

#2: Look at transcripts, grade reflections, Infinite Campus printouts from the last four years.

How have you grown in each category of instruction over the last four years? Be specific in your

observations and interpretations.

Throughout my high school career, I’ve seen plenty of growth in my English classes

overall. When I entered freshman year at Great Oak, I came in looking forward mostly to the
STEM classes I’d be taking, but not as much the humanities classes. Now, I find myself enjoying

my humanities classes very much, and in particular, English. So in a general sense of

appreciation of English class, I’ve grown a lot. However I’ve also grown tremendously in my

ability as a writer. While I still can’t tell you what zeugma is, I can read a novel that makes very

little sense the first time around and eventually piece together some sort of purpose. Furthermore

I can convey such purpose in my writing. What finally made literary analysis click in my head

was the “what why how” literary analysis click in my head was the “what why how” method I

learned this year. Explaining literary devices in this way seemed like such a simple thing to do

that made writing so much more powerful and insightful. Overall I have grown a lot as a writer

and in particular a tremendous amount this year.

#3: Look at transcripts, grade reflections, Infinite Campus printouts from the last four years. In

which categories do you still see opportunity for growth? How will you continue to grow in these

areas after graduation?

After looking at Infinite Campus for my grades in English, it’s clear that they are mostly

consistent across the board in each category, but the one that tends to lag slightly behind is the

analysis of literary features or rhetorical devices. I started to become aware of this challenge

during sophomore year’s AP lang class. I would consistently do well with synthesis and

argumentative essays but seemed to come up short with rhetorical analysis. This issue resurfaced

recently when annotating paper 1 material. I would hear you say “you should have ~20 devices

found by now” and I’d be sitting pretty hear at 10, wondering where the rest of them are hidden.

In any case, I see a lot of room for growth in my ability to analyze a work from a literary device
standpoint and more generally to be more perceptive of the cool techniques writers use to convey

their purposes. In college, I want to take some poetry classes for fun and educational reasons and

for the alternative purpose of improving my skills with literary devices.

#4: How has GOHS prepared you for “the next step” (college, vocation/career, etc.)?

GOHS and in particular the IB Diploma Program has prepared me immensely for college.

The main conversation I hear around campus amongst IB students at the end of the year is the

question of whether IB was worth it. Many argue it wasn’t worth the additional work and stress,

especially because they won’t get much credit for it in college, but I believe it was worth it

particularly because of the additional work and stress. IB was a challenge that, while incredibly

difficult at times, I did conquer. Because of this challenge, I feel immensely prepared for the

rigor of intense college coursework. I feel comfortable writing three essays in two and a half

hours thanks to IB history and I can effectively solve difficult physics problems the likes of

which I have never seen before. Great Oak has done an excellent job in pushing me to be the best

possible version of myself, and as a result I feel ready to tackle my next challenge: college.