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Savannah Rampola
Personal Statement
Mr. Landon
English 4 ERWC
10/15/18
Personal Statements

What have you done to make your school or your community a better place?
Throughout the years, I’ve been involved in giving back to my community through my job as a
summer camp counselor and volunteer work at the zoo. The Oakland Zoo was a place that I
spent many weekends at growing up, so after my sophomore year I dedicated my summer to
being a teen wild guide. This experience has let me educate young children, teenagers, and even
adults to the ultimate world of animals and wildlife, something I grew up being extremely
passionate about. The awareness of wildlife in my childhood inspired me to grasp new concepts
and empathy toward choices I make and events that happen around the world. It opened a new
door for opportunities in my future, which I aspired to pass down to future and current
generations of my community.
As a young girl, I was enrolled in a summer program that impacted my growth and maturity.
Being in high school had reconnected me with friends I had made at this program before, which
encouraged me to create bonds with children of my own local community. At the age of
seventeen, I began working at the same summer program. As an alumni, I felt as if it was my
duty to carry on the traditions and history of our city. Through team-building challenges and
games promoting creativity, I became their role model, as my past camp counselors did for me,
in hopes of shaping them into strong, knowledgeable citizens of our future community.

Describe how you have taken advantage of a significant educational opportunity or worked
to overcome an educational barrier you have faced.
My whole life I grew up with the mentality of having a purpose to help others in order for them
to benefit and achieve their goals. I was conflicted for years about what kind of path I wanted to
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follow for my future. I created big goals for myself; when adults asked me what I wanted to be, I
answered with “architect”. It later changed to “veterinarian” or “teacher” and cycled into
“lawyer” or “doctor”. Those were the two paths I’ve kept my eye on for years into middle and
high school. I took a tremendous interest in both history and science. Into high school, I chose
my classes with the desire of challenge in those two specific areas. Course I took included
biology, chemistry, anatomy, human geography, AP art history, AP world history, AP U.S.
history, and AP government/economy. I greatly excelled in all of these courses, but was still
deadlocked on which path I wanted to pursue. It wasn’t until my senior year in high school that I
enrolled myself into a nursing assistant course at my regional occupational program site. This
class that I am currently taking is a huge assessment for me to use and improve my skills and
strengths to be a successful worker in the medical field. The nursing assistant class is allowing
me to gain medical knowledge and experience before taking a larger leap into choosing my
major and which specific classification I would like to join. Another advantage of this class is
getting hands-on care experience with residents and patients at hospitals, nursing homes, and
long term care facilities around my area. I’ve gotten to work with specialists of different areas
including occupational and physical therapists, dietitians, surgeons, speech therapists, and more.
This has given me one foot in the door to obtain a clear sense of direction for my future in the
medical department and drive to maintain my desire to care for others.

Think about an academic subject that inspires you. Describe how you have furthered this
interest inside and/or outside of the classroom.
This year (my senior year in high school), I took the initiative to enroll myself in a nursing
assisting class at my regional occupational program site. I had been interested in the medical
field since middle school, but was never sure about taking that path for my future. I will be
eternally grateful for this course to be offered in high school because it has guided me to choose
which category to dedicate my future work and time to. To begin the class, we learned basic
skills that are needed to be state-tested on in order to become a certified nursing assistant. Next,
our teacher, Mrs. Brucker, strictly tested us on these skills. Once we passed our testing on all
twenty-seven skills, we were released to a variety of externship sites all over our community.
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These sites ranged from acute care in hospitals to long term care in nursing homes and assisted
living facilities. With these externships, I was given the oppurtunity to experience hands-on care
with patients and residents and meet with medical professionals of a variety of fields. All of
those encounters allowed me to be faced with ideas of which profession I would be most
interested in. Overall, the nursing assisting class opened many possibilities to my life which
influenced me to pursue my passion in helping others as a speech-language pathologist. This
class is the reason why I’m choosing to major in speech-language pathology in college.

Describe an example of your leadership experience in which you have positively influenced
others, helped resolve disputes or contributed to group efforts over time.
I have been playing on my high school’s varsity volleyball team since freshman year and playing
for club teams since seventh grade which has shaped me into a strong, responsible competitor. I
have been considered as a leader on all of my teams since I have a prominent role as being a
setter. It is my job to demand great passes from our defense and to set up our hitters in a strategic
and most effective way. My coaches have depended on me to succeed in crunch time situations
and to hold my teammates accountable for their actions. For school, however, I was the
dependable figure on and off the court. During my junior year in high school, our varsity
volleyball team was setting the bar extremely high and exceeding expectations for all sports.
However, just a few weeks before our regular season was over (which is when we would get
placed for playoffs), a few of my teammates’ grades dropped. As soon as their grades would
drop to a certain percentage, they would be ineligable for playoffs. I knew that this was one of
the “crunch-time situations” off the court that I needed to support my teammates. I suggested
ways for them to stay on top of their school work and pushed them to strive for better grades so
that their actions wouldn’t negatively impact the team as a whole. Once a week, the sports teams
at my school gather after class to do homework, either seperately or together, before practice.
This was immensely helpful for time management, but I wanted my teammates to have stronger
help in the quickest time frame possible. I suggested that instead of going to this after school
gathering, they could ask their teachers for one on one studying where there was no possibility of
becoming distracted. Outside of tutorial, I urged for them to put their homework first before
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going out after school and on the weekends. Being the reliable teammate I had been for them for
so many years, they trusted my judgement and were thankful once their grades rose back up to
above satisfactory. We ended up breaking the record for our school’s volleyball team and
making it all the way to the semi-finals of the north coast section playoffs.