Sahan Yerram

What advice do you have for underclassmen?

For younger students, I would definitely say enjoy the classes you take. It’s more than just working hard, it’s about learning how to learn well and loving the art of learning. Enjoy learning in school is the only way you can keep your grades up, or you will become miserable.

What is something you wish you told your ninth-grade self?

I wish I had told my ninth-grade self To manage my time better.  At times I tended to procrastinate everything too late at night and I’d see myself staying up to very late hours. If the work is not done, just sleep and get it done the next thing in the morning instead of losing sleep. 

What was your most memorable part of high school? 

All the time I spent with my friends. I’ve been lucky to have great friends in almost every one of my classes. It has been pretty fun building those relationships, I think that will continue throughout my entire life. 

What are your thoughts on the current education system and college admissions?

I think college admissions put a lot of stress on students especially when you’re in the top 10%. There is social pressure to apply to these really well-known schools and get accepted, so I think we should break it, and just put more emphasis on attending college, not what college you attend. 

How have you worked towards the top 10 honor?

It wasn’t a goal I had in mind, I just wanted to maintain high grades throughout high school. I would get demotivated by failure, there were times when I didn’t go too well during the first or second semester. It was mostly just tweaking that and learning from my mistakes really helped me stay in the top 10. 

What are your goals for the future?

I am interested in a lot of different things, so I don’t have one career path that I want to take but I will attend UT Austin as a business honors major. Something I am very interested in is sustainable business and finance, so maybe something like consulting or building sustainable supply chain models. I am also very interested in science, so I’m looking into pursuing medicine as well.

What is the hardest lesson you learned through school?

Everything in the world is not fair. There are times when you will put in the effort and work really hard but you might not get the outcome you wanted to get. Even though you didn’t get that result, I think working towards that and improving yourself is a great learning experience. Just make sure you are improving yourself every day and not focusing on outcomes but on the things you do in between.

How do you stay motivated? 

The big thing is surrounding myself with people that are also very driven and motivated. You are the average of the five people you spend most of your time with, so it really is just picking and choosing the right people to surround yourself with while keeping in mind long term goals and career plans. 

How much effort did you put into studying after school? 

There are some days when I have almost no work and can relax and then there are some days when I have to stay up all night. I usually have something to do after school like work out then I come home, study for a few hours, spend time with family, talking to friends and then go to sleep. 

How were you able to balance your academic, extracurricular and social life?

It’s mostly prioritizing things you want to do. As an underclassman I joined a lot of organizations and activities and that was overwhelming. I cut that down and found what I really wanted to do was spend time with friends and family. 

What were your extracurricular activities?

I am the president of the Sierra Club Coppell youth branch. We do a lot around the high school including managing the composting bins, working to install solar panels and spreading awareness about environmental problems.

Follow Sri (@sriachanta_) and Anette (@AnetteVarghese) @CHSCampusNews on Twitter.