This year, the Talisman is doing special features on 26 unique seniors throughout the school year to celebrate these past four years they’ve spent here. These students represent the different facets of the class of 2026 at Delaware Hayes.
Meet Maureen:
Q: What activities are you involved in at Hayes?
A: Within Hayes, I have been involved with Chorale, Teen Eco Summit, Thespians, Track & Field, Student Council, and am currently a third-year of the Global Scholars program, Secretary of Key Club, and the Vice President of Service for the National Honor Society.
Q: Do you have any commitments outside of school?
A: Outside of Hayes, I commit the majority of my time to volunteering with Delaware’s non-profits: I serve as the Student Representative of United Way’s Community Impact Council for the Strengthening Families Grant Allocations, the Stage Manager for the Central Ohio Symphony, an Optometrist Assistant/Medical Scribe for Grace Clinic Delaware, a High School Volunteer for United Way’s STEMPossible, and as an Assistant Instructor for the Unity Community Center’s STEAM Club. A few clubs that I attend are Ohio State University’s Project Dialogues for Racial Equity, Advocacy, and Mattering in Schools (DREAMS) as a Peer Facilitator, HelpLine’s Delaware County Youth Leadership Council, the Delaware Historical Society’s 250 Student Ambassadors program, and I am a member of Columbus State Community College’s Honors Program.
Additionally, lately I have been devoted to my Global Scholars project of creating a crochet club with United Way. The club started this past November, so if you are available twice a month and want to learn how to crochet, get free yarn for other projects, or just eat snacks, please consider reaching out!
Q: How did you balance your schoolwork with your other commitments?
A: Although it sounds incredibly nerdy to me, I could not have kept a balance without a Google spreadsheet. Since freshman year, my spreadsheet has held me to choosing classes that work with my schedule outside of school and attending club meetings; but my favorite thing about it is getting to see the payoff over the years. High school passes by extremely fast (which has really started to hit me lately), and it's a reminder that while I can always have wanted to do more, I’ve still accomplished enough to be proud of. Also, having a spreadsheet has helped me realize that if you give school enough time each day (I prefer starting around midnight), then making time for your commitments gets easier.
Q: What is your favorite memory from Hayes?
A: During sophomore year, I got some students from Mr. Lehman’s Chemistry Honors class to do a “what do you think you will get on the test” video, where I would ask the student that question, and they would enthusiastically say “100!”, then it pans to their actual test grade. What made it so special was that the test was definitely the hardest of the year, so the grades REALLY varied, and it's been a funny video for me to keep and cherish. Hopefully, everyone in the video has been having much better grades in chemistry than then.
Q: What has been your favorite class at Hayes and why?
A: Modern World History Honors during my freshman year greatly shaped my perspective of high school. Weakland’s class taught me the importance of studying in the long term and the consequences of getting distracted; how to plan my schedule around schoolwork, and was why I started my spreadsheet; and that the most interesting classes might not be the ones you are required to take, but those that help you become well-rounded.
Q: What is one piece of advice you have for future high schoolers?
A: It is more than okay to fall short, whether it’s at something big or small. When you pursue a challenge, the people with you are often rooting for you, so you can trust them to understand your limits. You can let them know when you’re overwhelmed, when a mental health break is needed, or when you feel the task is getting too daunting. Throughout high school, I have taken many ambitious risks that definitely did not work out, but I took them because, at the beginning, I felt the motivation that I could succeed, and having that feeling was worth it.
Q: What is one thing you’ll miss when you’re gone?
A: One thing that I will miss about being a high schooler is leveraging being a high schooler. At this age, every organization jumps at the chance of including students like you within their projects, for various reasons, but mostly to have a youth perspective. Abuse that chance. There are so many paid and unpaid internships and opportunities that you can seize, and they can be a rare occasion to talk critically and cause change. By leveraging, I have gotten the chance to strengthen my abilities of speaking loudly on my opinions and advocating for others. Never would I have thought I could speak to the City Council and School Board about improvements they desperately needed as a freshman or to give a scientific presentation at a college symposium as a junior, and yet it happened. So, I would encourage every student to leverage their young age to their advantage, because that is what I’ll miss most when I am graduated and old.
Q: What are your plans for after high school and why?
A: The dream would definitely be to attend Emory University in Georgia after high school and complete their Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology major. Neuroscience has always been an interesting double major in one to me as it's a creative outlook on the brain from a psychological and biological perspective. If not Emory, then I would like to use my Associate’s of Science in Psychology from Columbus State to finish a bachelor’s at The Ohio State University, and possibly study abroad to learn Swahili. But, from whatever college I go to, being an anesthesiologist is the end goal dream.
Good luck Maureen! We are looking forward to seeing what you will achieve in these next steps.
