Bianca Bracht was never planning to become the valedictorian of her class. She explains how she had “…worked hard, and it just happened.” In fact, Bianca humbly accepts the title of valedictorian as an “honor,” acknowledging the fact that there are plenty of others who are intelligent in her grade. To her, the title of valedictorian “puts together all the hard work” that she did during her four years of high school.
As a well-rounded individual, Bianca has not only excelled academically but has overcome the challenge of balancing her time between her family, schoolwork, sports, and extracurricular activities. She has taken part in Math Team, Scholastic Bowl, WYSE, one year of soccer, two years of tennis, two years of cross country, and Chinese classes outside of school. In addition to these activities during the school year, Bianca even traveled to Panama during one of her summers to offer her volunteer work there. Although she admits that she has had to deal with many “sleepless nights” to accommodate everything into her schedule, Bianca truly believes her “all-around experience” in high school was worthwhile.
Bianca encourages that one should not only focus on academics and school work but should use high school as an experience to “find and distinguish [one’s] passions.” She believes that getting involved in a variety of activities helps students have a taste of many different areas in order to harness the true potential within them and to see where their interests lie. As she leaves PR, her biggest piece of advice to underclassmen is to be “open-minded to new experiences, and [to] challenge themselves to be successful in finding out what it is they want to do in life.”
Next year, Bianca will attend Duke University in North Carolina, where she will major in Biomedical Engineering and minor in either Chinese or Business. In the future, Bianca plans to use this major as either a stepping stone into medical school, or an option to pursue BME. Prairie Ridge wishes the best of luck to Bianca as she continues to challenge herself.
