With her friends by her side, Ava Noland opens up a letter from New York University that will notify her whether she’s been accepted to the prestigious college. Despite being at school, she screams as she reads its contents, and the following minutes are filled with excitement and cheers as she celebrates with those around her. She FaceTimes her mom and brother and shares the good news with them — she’s been accepted to NYU!

“NYU wasn’t my dream school, actually the school wasn’t even on my radar until I got the acceptance letter,” Noland says. “I really only applied because Mrs. Sieg mentioned it, but there were no strong feelings around it. I’m glad I got in though, I think the right school found me.”

Despite getting into her previous dream school, Boston University, Noland knew that her place was at NYU. She is eager for the academic rigor of classes at the school and loves the diversity of majors on campus. She also wants to go to a school with an urban setting and looks forward to experiencing New York City: using the subway, going to cool restaurants, and visiting museums. Mostly, Noland is excited to meet new people and make a lot of friends, alongside her roommate JoJo Wren. Noland plans to major in Political Science while also exploring art majors and building her own curriculum around fashion design.

Noland boasts a long list of extracurricular activities including ArtStart, Hispanic Honors Society, National Honors Society, and Students of Claremont Change. She credits her NYU acceptance to the combination of them and her full IB diploma. She advises anyone working on college apps to tie their extracurriculars to whatever major they plan on pursuing. Despite not knowing what exactly NYU liked best about her application, Noland thinks dedicating herself to a certain thing, like community service, is something that really helped.

“Just work hard right now, it’s difficult to muster up the energy but just try, and don’t put too much emphasis on good grades or advanced classes,” Noland said. “Follow your own path and choose what makes you happy.”

She would like to thank Mrs. Sieg for encouraging her to follow this path and her family for always supporting her and giving her room to grow and be independent. As her last words, Noland encourages students to have a good time during high school. “Stay Lit,” she says “There we go, you can quote me on that.”