Odyssey Academy has not only impacted my education but my personal life as well. I have attended this school since Pre-K and in that time, I have developed into a determined, independent person, and Odyssey has played a crucial role in that. Teachers and staff have always encouraged me to be unique and work towards my goals, even if others believed I would not succeed. When people doubted me, it did not discourage me from going after my goals, in fact, it had the opposite effect, and I became even more motivated. Setting goals is an important thing that Odyssey teaches because it gives students a direction in life and something to work towards. In the beginning of the year, students make goals they want to achieve, both personal and educational, and you make a plan and timeline of how to achieve it. Making goals and planning out how to achieve them helped me a lot as a student, especially in high school. In the beginning of each semester, I write down my goals for my classes and write down the steps of how to achieve them. Being able to look at the future helps motivate me to keep working hard so I can get there. Lastly, the values of this school are something that I have been taught since I was young and have now integrated into my own life. The four values are respect, responsibility, integrity, and leadership. Not only do we talk about these values in class, but teachers and staff lead by example by exhibiting them and teaching students how they can practice them in their own lives. These are important values to have and attending a school where they live by them has helped shaped me into the conscientious person I am today.
These past few years, I have been thinking a lot about my plans for the future because it is time to start working towards them. After I graduate from high school, I plan to continue my education by attending Stephen F Austin State University, where I will be studying biology. During this time, I will be on a pre-med track to prepare for my future career. With the credits I have gotten at College of the Mainland through Odyssey, I will be able to graduate early and get a head start on my career. After graduating with my bachelors, I plan to attend medical school to work towards becoming a surgeon. Attending medical school has been a goal of mine for a long time because of my grandfather. He was a doctor, and I always wanted to help people like he did. Before he died, he would always tell me how proud he was that I wanted to become a doctor and help others. He wanted to watch me get into medical school, and although he did not get to see that, I want to do it in his honor. After I graduate from medical school, I will take the final steps in becoming a surgeon which include my internship, fellowship, and residency where I will learn more about my specialty, trauma surgery. I chose this specialty because I wanted a career that I would not only enjoy but make a positive impact on someone’s life. Trauma surgery has always interested me because of the fast paced, stressful environment and the uniqueness of each patient.
My plan for my personal life is to dedicate time to helping others in my community. Odyssey has taught me the importance of community service and volunteering, and I want to continue this when I get older. I want to continue being active in volunteering and raising awareness on different issues throughout my community. Something I want to advocate for is equality, especially in healthcare. Many people are not fortunate enough to have access to good healthcare because of the area they live in or their financial status. I want to raise awareness on the discrimination in healthcare based on gender, race, and class. Lastly, I want to make an impact outside of my community as well and hopefully volunteer in different countries through Doctors Without Borders. There are many countries that do not have access to the type of healthcare that is available in the United States, and their citizens are suffering because of it. I want to help in any way I can whether it is donating medical equipment, administering different vaccines, or even just helping educate others.
Thanks to Odyssey and the core values that they teach us, I have had the opportunity to learn a lot about becoming a leader in my community. Responsibility, respect, integrity, encouragement, and safety are qualities of a good leader. These are all values that are practiced at Odyssey and because of this, I practice them in my personal life. Another leadership quality that I learned at this school is selfless service. In middle school, I was lucky enough to have the opportunity of joining the National Junior Honor Society at Odyssey and help my community. Through this organization, I volunteered at many events and got to meet leaders in our community that inspired me to help others. Thanks to this encouragement of service, I have continued to be active in my community in high school by joining the National Honor Society and the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society at College of the Mainland. Through Phi Theta Kappa, I continued to volunteer and took on more a leadership role by being the Vice President of Fellowship of our chapter. In this position, I have grown a lot as a leader by improving my project planning and management skills. During my tenure, I organized our chapter’s College Project, which is a project that would benefit our campus and bring the students and staff together. To complete this project, I have had to collaborate with staff and students at College of the Mainland to not only find a problem on campus, but to figure the best way to resolve it. Being in this position has helped me become better at organization, working with others, and overcoming challenges. Odyssey has given me many opportunities to learn and grow as a leader and encouraged me to help others with the skills I have. These qualities will help me succeed later in life by being a leader in my career field and community. This school has helped shaped me in many ways, and without it, I would not be the person I am today.”
- Elissa Rivas, 2022 OAG Senior
