During the summer, the rotten carpet and the smell of spit permeates the room. Here I am "Melery" because my first hack at the marimba was not at all as melodic as my name would suggest. Within the confines of the band room, every facet of my world comes together in perfect harmony. I rock hard on the clunkiest instrument I can find and let the musical trance hypnotize me into a state of euphoria. Looking back, I realize my...

From the seventh grade, I knew my career was set in biology; I loved going to class every day, genuinely excited about learning about the structure of DNA or the function of different organelles in the cell. When it came to dissecting the heart and the eye of a sheep, never was I more excited to go to class and start analyzing the organs to see how they work. The other girls in my group cringed in disgust, while I...

Japanese sushi and ramen class. It was a class that you can...

Fun. Hardworking. Passionate. Competitive. Involved. Everyone here is smart to a certain level,...

Staff and upperclassmen are super...

I had a private counselor, and the main advice I got was...

Philadelphia is so diverse and big that you get the best of both worlds....