Meet Northfield's National Merit Finalists: Lauren Wustenberg

Editor's note: Out of 1.5 million applicants, five Northfield seniors are in a group of 15,000 National Merit finalists. Each student has a chance at one of several scholarship opportunities. This week, Northfield Patch features those five students, with one profile running each day Monday-Friday.

Name: Lauren Wustenberg

Parents: Wendy and William (Bill) Wustenberg

Post-graduation plans: I'm attending Northwestern University.

Favorite high school moment:

I have a wide variety of interests and passions, so I have multiple favorite moments from a few varied involvements I’ve had in high school. On the academic side, every moment of AP US History sophomore year and Honors Art this year were/are a favorite moment of mine. They are classes that challenge me every day on my favorite subjects and the intensity of the studies turn the people in those classes into a family. Plus, the teachers for these classes are fantastic and make class a joy to go to every day!

For extra-curricular involvements, my participation in MN YMCA Youth in Government (aka YIG) each year and Rock and Roll Revival IX this year have been some of the most rewarding experiences of my life. YIG offers an unparalleled experience to discuss real world issues, work in multiple government jobs, argue court cases, or gain experience in media coverage in a student-run model government with peers from across the state. Being appointed Chief of Staff to the Youth Governor was an honor this year and helping run programs that were held in the MN state capitol was an experience I will never forget.

Rock and Roll this year was also an unforgettable experience. The amount of work the entire cast and our amazing directors put into it really paid off and being able to participate in that big of a production as a lead not only taught me a lot about performing, but made me learn more about myself too.

Toughest moment (you're willing to share)/How did you get here? Reflect on what it took to get a month from graduation.

I have been dedicated to making sure I could participate in choir throughout high school and be in the Honors Art class my senior year since middle school. Surprisingly, my toughest (and sometimes most rewarding) moments in high school have come from ensuring that these two goals could be met while simultaneously maintaining a rigorous course-load.

I came in to high school knowing that I needed to take five art classes before second semester of senior year, find room for choir each year and fill my schedule with AP classes. Little did I know that I would end up going to summer school on the East Coast for a month of summer two years in a row, taking health and personal fitness online, giving up AP Chemistry in order to stay in choir this year and traveling to Peru for three weeks to study photography with National Geographic this past summer in order to meet those three goals.

My entire high school career has revolved around meeting these goals I entered high school with and I couldn’t be more pleased with the way it turned out. The experiences I had while I was led to through scheduling conflicts and a need to take extra classes made me the person I am today. With the help of Mrs. Kathy Wiertsema-Miller and her creative scheduling
solutions, along with the things I mentioned above, I did manage to stay in choir for all four years of high school and am happily a member of the Honors Art class this semester and can’t wait for our exhibition later this spring.

What do you see in the future? Do you want to travel? Get done with college as soon as possible? What are your ambitions?

This fall I will attend Northwestern University, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences to study the science and policy sides of environmental issues, with a little economics and journalism study on the side. Eventually, I hope to help increase communication between scientific and political stakeholders who are working to find solutions to environmental issues. If a common language can be created so these diverse groups can work together more effectively, solutions to these issues can be found and implemented more quickly and have a greater impact.

I am extremely excited to have opportunities to travel internationally and have a wide variety of cultural experiences around the world during, and hopefully after, college. Most likely I will go to graduate school to study law once I complete undergrad, but that decision will come once I get further into my undergrad studies.

Senior quote:

I don’t necessarily have a quote as a senior, but I do try to live up to two quotes every day of my life. First, a quote by Edith Wharton, “In spite of illness, in spite even of the archenemy sorrow, one can remain alive long past the usual date of disintegration if one is unafraid of change, insatiable in intellectual curiosity, interested in big things, and happy in
small ways.” Second, one by Eleanor Roosevelt, “Do one thing every day that scares you.”

These quotes describe my entire approach to high school. At times when school started to seem like a chore, all I had to do was remember how much I love the things I’m studying. When you’re doing or studying things you enjoy, they don’t seem like work and the homework and obligations become infinitely easier to handle.

Also, throughout high school, everything in my life has changed. I changed as a person, my friends changed, my interests and activities changed, and once I learned to look at these changes as opportunities to grow they became exciting rather than intimidating. Now in my senior year, this outlook has made the entire process of applying and choosing a college an adventure rather than an intimidating ordeal.