Ellie Holliway
Kuder
RELI 193
16 February 2021
My Educational Milestones
The bulk of my academic achievements came from attending Skyline High School in
Sammamish, Washington. I spent my time as a student focusing on grades, involvement in clubs,
passion for dance, and challenging myself in my classes. All this hard work that I spent doing in
high school led me to my biggest academic achievements, which was being accepted into the
nursing program at Gonzaga, receiving a class rank, and
The high school I went to was extremely competitive and to be an above average student,
I had to work hard to get where I wanted to be. I pushed myself, starting my freshman year of
high school to get the best grades I could possibly get while juggling dancing on the side. I spent
the time that I was not at dance studying. There were nights that I would come home at 10:30
from dancing all day and not start my homework until 11pm. I persevered to get where I knew I
could be as a student to stay ahead of the others in my class. I did struggle with time
management and knowing when I should be doing what, but it ultimately all paid off in the end. I
wanted to push myself to get good grades because I wanted to get into a good school and have
the ability to pursue whatever passion I desired. Like I said, my high school had an extremely
competitive nature and everyone else around me was trying to work just as hard as I was. I
ultimately finished high school with receiving a cum laude for the GPA I had. I was also able to
apply to my schools national honors society program because of my GPA and class standing as
well. I would consider this one of my top educational milestones as a student because my high
school GPA and its recognition is a culmination of all my work from four years of high school.
Some important people that helped me get here were my parents; they showed me what hard
work means and how important it is to preserver through anything you are given in life. They
wanted me to know what it means to get what you earn for and have me see the results on my
own and where it would take me.
In high school, I also took challenging STEM classes at an IB level, which is like AP,
which our school did not have. I knew when I was a junior in high school that I wanted to go into
the medical field, so I took several IB level sciences, such as biology, to push myself ahead and
hopefully get into a good college that had a program I liked. I also took a sports medicine class
where I learned basic anatomy and worked with the athletic trainer, Megan, at my school. Megan
was an important teacher to me my junior year of high school because she helped me find a
passion for helping others. As a part of the sports medicine class, I had to work in the training
room and help student athletes with their injuries. I mainly helped with the football team which
was not the best because I had to help smelly and sweaty players during practice. I learned how
to tape and wrap injured ankles, wrists, heels, and knees. Megan helped me understand what it
takes to put a patient before my own needs and give them my full undivided attention. This gave
me a better understanding of what I could be doing as a future STEM major in college.
I had also experienced and emotional understand of what it meant to be a healthcare
worker. My mom has Long QT, which is a heart disease that causes irregular heart rhythms that
can lead to cardiac arrest. My mom had a cardiac arrest when I was in elementary school and I
remember being terrified to know if she would be able to survive it. My dad saved her life by
successfully preforming CPR but she had to go into a medical induced coma. There was a
possibility when she woke up that she would have severe memory loss or she could have been
paralized. I remember the nurses at the hospital giving my brother and I emotional support and
keeping us company while we waited to see if my mom would be healthy. I remember one nurse
specifically kept my brother and I laughing by constantly telling us jokes and showing us
pictures of her dog to make us smile. I knew that one day I could be like the nurses that helped
my mom and comfort me while we had the unknown of her physical state. By my senior year I
knew I wanted to be a nurse. Because of this, I applied to schools with good nursing programs to
help best advance me in the career field. The challenging classes I made the choice to take in
high school helped me become prepared for applying to nursing school and it eventually paid off
in the end. As I said, I applied to schools with well-known nursing programs and Gonzaga was
up there for me as one of them. Once February of my senior year came around, I was extremely
anxious because I knew that Gonzaga admissions decisions would come out soon. I found out at
dance practice that I got into Gonzaga and the nursing program here and I remembering feeling
so overwhelmingly happy. My high school dance team coach is a Gonzaga alumnus, so it was
cool to share that moment with her as well. All the hard work had paid off, by challenging
myself in class, I got where I wanted to be for my future.
Additionally, I was the leader of several different clubs at my high school which was
important during my academic career. I was the treasurer of link crew which was a club to help
show younger students how to successfully navigate high school. I was also the communications
director of paws club which was a club where we raised money for our local animal shelters. My
different positions were beneficial to my academic career as it helped further my managerial,
leadership, and responsibility skills. I learned a lot from having leadership positions and knowing
what it takes to become someone with authority and responsibility. I applied my achievements of
belonging to club boards to my life as a college student. I just recently joined the off campus
sorority here at Gonzaga, where I am able to become part of a community that feeds off of
leadership. I will hopefully be able to have a part on the executive board once I am a member for
a little while longer.
Doing well in school is still one of my biggest motivators and I continue today to work as
hard as I can to be the best student I can be. I know from firsthand experience that my hard work
will pay out in the end.