Senior Spotlight: Andrea Gonzales '22 Northeastern University

March 10, 2022

As a member of Model UN, the Women’s Choir, Léman Main Stage, the Varsity Girls Soccer Team and the Varsity Swim Team, a member of the writing staff at the Bullhorn student newspaper, and President of the Yearbook Club, Andrea Gonzales has taken full advantage of her time at Léman. In addition to her activities in school, Andrea spends her free time pursuing additional interests, “I love learning new things related to culture and language. For me, languages have always been something that I use to relate to others. I have studied Spanish, Russian, French, English, Italian, and Portuguese. I love exploring different countries every year with my mom. My mom, dad, and I like to explore different cultures through eating all over New York since there are so many different countries and different cultures represented all over the city.”

These leadership roles and activities prepared her for admission to Northeastern University. She said, “I knew I wanted to stay on the East Coast, and when I visited, the moment I stepped onto the Northeastern campus I knew that it was the place for me. I approached a group of kids who were all studying together, and they told me about their experiences and what they had done other the years. They were studying psychology, which is what I want to do, and they told me about studying abroad in Greece and Italy, and I want to study abroad. After that visit, I looked deeper into the school on their website, and I just knew it was the college for me.”

Andrea feels she’ll be prepared for the rigor of college because of the IB. She said, “The IB is a bit challenging, but I think it’s going to be impactful on my life because it’s both rigorous and it teaches you things that apply to the real world. The IB has also helped me to be more focused on myself. I try to incorporate something I love, or I’m interested in into my projects. In Chemistry, I’m experimenting with the effects of caffeine because I love coffee. In Math, I incorporated my love of skiing by comparing my times with an Olympic skier. I like that the IB lets me have this opportunity to bring something I love into projects that are otherwise really challenging.”  

As a student who came to Léman in 6th grade, Andrea is very familiar with the Upper School. When asked what advice she’d give to a student just entering High School, she said, “Connecting with your teachers is very important because there are going to be times when class might be challenging or you need extra help. Our teachers are great. Also, try new things like joining different clubs that you never thought you might like. I never knew I wanted to do anything with politics, but I joined Model UN in eighth grade, and I loved it and it helped me gain public speaking skills.  Also, I think just interacting with the boarding students as you grow older into the community is also very important because we are so lucky to have a boarding community here from different countries. And I think just building that connection with them, you'll learn something new every day that you might not necessarily learn in a classroom.”