Name: Lulu

Graduation Year: 2027

Middle School: Prospect Sierra

Hometown: Berkeley

What advice would you give to eighth graders applying to high school? Be true to yourself! If you try to engineer your application towards a school's personality instead of your own, you might end up in a place where your authentic self is not appreciated in the way it should be. I put a lot of my personality in my application to College Prep, and when I did get accepted, I was super excited because I knew that College Prep appreciated all sides of myself, even the quirky ones.

Campus Involvement: Tennis is my main sport—I've played all 4 years and I now captain the team—but I also play basketball. I lead DIRT, the gardening club at CPS, and I'm one of the lead editors of College Prep's student-run art magazine, Artsmag. As far as art classes go, I've jumped around a lot, taking Orchestra and Chamber Music my freshman year, Dance 1 my sophomore year with no prior dance experience, and Drawing and Design my senior year, simply because I wanted to try all of them. I also mentor for the Partners Program every spring, in addition to being a part of their summer academy the summer before senior year.

What is your favorite thing about College Prep? People are often drawn to CPS for the academics, but for me, my favorite thing about College Prep is the environment. There are so many opportunities for fun outside the classroom, like dances, spirit week, carnival, common classroom, and more. As well as being ways to de-stress, all of these activities really help build community. In addition, the school has an abundance of support: the learning center, the school counselor, advisors, and even the teachers. Everyone at CPS really wants you to succeed while understanding that sometimes you need help to achieve that success.

What is your favorite character from a movie/book/television series? While there are so many to choose from, I think I have to go with Robin Buckley from Stranger Things. She’s smart, quirky, and super funny, especially in her scenes with Steve Harrington, another one of my favorite characters ever.