Bryce Verdusco

The Senior Scoop is a collaboration between administration and the Class of 2023. It gives the senior class a chance to share their experiences and plans for the future. In this episode, Bryce discusses his college plans and interest in computer engineering. He is considering multiple colleges and weighing factors such as job rates, course offerings, and internship opportunities. Bryce also reflects on his time at Augray-Sims, highlighting the benefits of knowing his classmates for so long while also acknowledging the challenges of fitting in. He shares his enjoyable experience playing soccer through a co-op program. One of his favorite memories is accidentally taking out an opponent's goalkeeper during a game. The Senior Scoop is an opportunity for the community to hear directly from the senior class about their experiences, hopes, dreams, and reflections. The Scoop is the result of a collaboration between administration and the Class of 2023. We hope that you'll enjoy chilling with us each week as we dish up a sweet treat of accumulated Wolverine wisdom, 13 years in the making, and introduce you to the fantastic young men and women who will soon become AGS alumni and tomorrow's community leaders. I'm your Senior Scoop host, Chris Ming, the proud superintendent of the Augray-Sims School District. Thanks for listening. Now let's dig in. Good morning, Augray-Sims and the community. It's a beautiful, sunny morning here in my office. And joining me today for our second episode of the Senior Scoop is Senior Bryce Produsko. So Bryce, welcome. Hey, thank you for having me. How are you doing today? I'm doing pretty good. Excited to be out of class for a few minutes? Well, I added college courses. My first two hours are college courses, so I don't really have like a designated high school class these first two hours. Really? And what are you taking in college right now? I'm doing a computer maintenance and repair class and a general chemistry class. Excellent. So general computer maintenance and repair and chemistry. Okay. How do those two go together? Well, I just need to fill up my MTA for my designated courses that colleges usually look for and stuff so that I have less to take in at college. Okay. Well, that sounds good. Getting the chemistry out of the way early is probably pretty helpful. Personally, I love the chemistry. That was what I majored in in college, but it was a little different direction back then. I didn't have as many opportunities as you have here at Augray-Sims to take those college courses. So you mentioned college. Is that the direction you think you're heading after you graduate? Yeah, I'm planning on it. Care to indulge? Any ideas about where you might end up? I don't have a designated spot yet. I was accepted to multiple different colleges, including UM-Dearborn, Michigan Tech, CMU, Michigan State University, and SDSU. So I'm just weighing all my options at this point and just comparing and contrasting every college and seeing which one's the best fit for me. Are you thinking you want to commute or is it something you want to go away and live on campus for a little bit? I was thinking of commuting, but if I do go to Michigan Tech, I will be really far away from everybody. It's like seven hours away or something. A little bit harder to commute during that seven hours, especially during the winter months. You'll need a toboggan and some Huskies to pull you along the way. Yeah. I have some family up there, so if I do end up going there, I might be able to stay with my family up there and commute from their house. So what's going into the decision? Because I do talk to a lot of students and the conversation is a lot about saving money, staying home and commuting, versus needing to get out of the house or wanting to get out of the house and experience something new. So what's going into your decision on which direction you want to go? Some of the things that are helping me with my decision are job rates after graduation from those colleges, the highest percentage of people who get jobs from those colleges, and whether or not it has the designated course that I want to go into, which is computer engineering, and if they have co-op and internship opportunities for me at those colleges. It seems like you have a lot to consider. So help me out here, because I've been in school since I was five years old. Whether a student or working, or both in a lot of cases, what exactly does a computer engineer do? They basically make any little intricate things inside a computer, or they build full PCs or laptops and just piece together all the little components of everything, and then they get shipped off to maybe a computer scientist who would then code and put all the software on it and whatnot. But in my computer maintenance and repair class, I'm actually learning a little bit about computer engineering and computer sciences, where I know software-based things and hardware-based things, like laptops and PCs and whatnot. Excellent. So you know that you want to go into computers. Yeah. Just not quite sure which zone you're going to land in quite yet. Yes. Okay, excellent. So let's put pause on the after high school. Let's talk a little bit about your high school experience here. How long have you been an Augury Sim student? I've been here ever since kindergarten. So you are one of those people who have literally walked the entire hallway of the entire district. Yep. Bounced around all the different rooms, seen all the different faces, the different teachers. Mm-hmm. What's it been like having the same group of peers in your class for 13 years? It's been an experience, because since I've had them for so long, I can see their growth along with my growth in the school. So then it's like, wow, you've changed a lot over the years, and I've changed a lot over the years. Okay. So you don't have anything to compare it to, right? So you don't have any outside experience of being in a bigger school or smaller school. But talk to me about how you felt about that, having that group of peers, being in one school district throughout your entire schooling career. Well, it was definitely different, because of the fact that I always saw the same faces all the time. But when there was a new student that came in, I'd be always one of the ones who would help introduce them to the school, because I was always a friendly face. Some of the teachers would entrust me with some people to help guide through some grades and stuff, because I was always willing to help. And since I knew them and stuff, ever since kindergarten, I was able to know what their conversations are like and whatnot, and able to learn from them how they learn. So then if I do have to help them, I'm able to help them in the best way I possibly can. All right. So what do you think are the biggest positive and the biggest negative to having that one group of peers that you spend that much time with, without a whole lot of variation? Because we have small classes here at Algrave Sims. So you probably don't have a whole lot of variation. People who are in the senior class, you've probably known since you were young, very young. Yeah. A big positive of it is the fact that I don't have to introduce myself to a bunch of new people all the time, and get to know such a big majority of people, just so that I know that there's people out there that I can look out to or whatever. And a negative of it is that I don't really fit in with a lot of the other kids. So I'm just kind of like this other kid that doesn't really fit into everybody else's thing. But I don't care, and I've just accepted that. Okay. Well, I will tell you, something I've shared with other students before, that I found that in high school, or even in middle school, or even elementary school, everyone tries really, really hard to fit in. Yeah. But as soon as you walk across that stage, you get that diploma, you're going to be trying everything you could do to be unique. From your resume, to standing out in the crowd, to find a potential partner in life, to the job performance, whatever it might be, you're trying to make yourself look unique. So I don't put a whole lot of stock in trying to fit in with a group and be popular and this and that, because at the end of the day, no one wants to be just a number in the crowd later in life. They want to be unique. They want to be special, and they want to stand out so they have the better opportunities. So I praise you for the different things that you've been involved with here. You've had some different experiences here. So you are one of the initial students who's been involved in the co-op that we've had with Dennis Sterling for soccer. Why don't you tell me a little bit about that experience? That was a really fun experience for me because I've always loved the sport of soccer. I've been doing it ever since I was three years old in youth league. And when I went to high school and stuff, I was like, is there a chance I can play soccer? But there was a U19 team here at one point with Mrs. Murphy coaching it, but when I got into high school and stuff, there was nobody else who wanted to play. It was literally just me. So when this opportunity came about the previous year, just before my high school career, I was like, this sounds really fun. So when the co-op initially happened and stuff, I went over there and I saw some of my Spanish friends that I've played with when I played one year of their youth league at one point since there wasn't an all-grey team. So when I went over there to play, it was just such a fun experience meeting all these other kids who love and enjoy the sport like I do. And we ended up losing quite a few games and stuff because it's hard in high school. But one of my greatest memories of my freshman year there is the fact that I took out a varsity goalie. He was a senior. I was going up for the header after a cross, and then he jumps up to grab the ball, and I'm just totally looking at the ball. I don't even see him coming in. Then he full on grabs the ball and puts his shoulder right into my chest and knocks me down. I popped right back up and I said I was fine. My coach was like, thanks, are you okay? And I was like, yeah, I'm good, coach. And then the goalie, he was still just down on the ground. He was wailing in pain and whatnot. And then he got taken out for the rest of the game. And I got taken out because my coach was worried, but I was perfectly fine. So what you're saying is that one of your favorite memories from high school is when you were a freshman taking out an opponent's goalkeeper. Yeah. Okay. Just want to make sure I was clear on that point there. All right, so I want to kind of put a wrap on a few things. But before I do, I just have a couple of random questions. And I like to throw some random ones out there just to see where people are at. So I'm going to go with the theme that we have actually for March is Reading Month, along the superpowers theme. So if you could have any superpower, what would it be and why? Probably teleportation. A lot of people ask me this question and I'm like, teleportation. A lot of people ask you this question? Yeah. There's just some random icebreaker questions sometimes when I'm talking to friends. And I'm always like, teleportation. It saves money on gas because gas these days is really high. And I don't have to worry about getting a driver's license. It saves money on driver's training and all that sort of thing and a vehicle. And I can just get anywhere where I need to go in a split second. Okay. Well, you know, you're selling me on teleportation. It sounds excellent at this point with all the drive time that we spend on the road. Yeah, absolutely. I understand that completely. All right, so you're graduating here in a couple months. What is one piece of advice that you would give to those underclassmen from kindergarten Bryce, way back in the day, all the way up through that junior class who's following in your footsteps? Let's see. If you find a designated path in life, try to reach for that goal and do anything you can to not just be another kid in that goal. So reach for the goal that you have in mind, but don't try to be just another one of those guys. Just try to reach for that same goal kind of sort of thing. And what is your goal? Just be successful in life and, you know, get a job, settle down somewhere eventually and just be happy with what I've chosen in life and not be regretting everything that I ended up thinking about or doing and all that sort of stuff. I think it's an admirable goal. Well, Bryce, thank you very much for joining me for the second episode here of the Senior Scoop. Thank you. It should be noted, though, that Bryce was one of the major contributors that got this podcast off the ground, helping me to figure out this crazy computer equipment that we're using here to record this podcast. So, Bryce, thank you for your help on that and thank you for the interview today. Thank you. All right. Have a great day, everybody. This has been a production of the Algrave Sims School District. Thanks for tuning in, and we hope you join us again soon for another Senior Scoop. SeniorScoop.com