Elizabeth Beardsley

The Senior Scoop is a collaboration between administration and the class of 2023, where seniors share their experiences and reflections. The host, Chris Ming, interviews Elizabeth Beardsley about her time at Algrae-Sim School District. She talks about her transition from Spanish to Algrae, her love for music and the impact of her teachers. Elizabeth plans to major in elementary education at Saginaw Valley and offers advice for middle schoolers. She also discusses her unique schedule and memories from her high school experience. 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 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 Algrae-Sim School District. Thanks for listening. Now let's dig in. Alright, good morning everybody. It is a rainy, dreary day on the day before spring break and I am here today with Elizabeth Beardsley Sr. from the class of 2023. How are you today, Liz? I'm pretty good, you know, just ready to do this. Okay, well I'm happy you're here. Hard day to be here the day before spring break, but I'm glad that you made the appearance this morning. So, Liz, why don't you tell me a little bit about your experiences here at Algrae-Sims. How long have you been a student in our school district? Well, I've been in the school since 6th grade and then I went to Spanish in like 3rd grade to that time and then I was here before then. So, you know, got some periods of breaks but for the most part of my like more important years I was here. Okay, so from 6th grade on, okay, and what brought you here from Spanish? Well, originally we were going to stay in Algrae. We had some kind of issues there, so that was the whole reason we went to Spanish, but once those got resolved we went to Algrae because closer to home, you know. True. You say we. Who are you talking about? My family. Okay, excellent. So, that's great. You've been here since 6th grade. Things have gone well for you. You're doing well here in school. Do you want to talk a little bit about that and the opportunities you've had? Well, I think first of all having a smaller class size makes it easier to connect with their classmates and kind of, you know, get some help in school work and same from our teachers. I mean, they've been amazing and I think they're part of the reason why I've been doing so well too. Do you have a couple teachers in particular who've had a large impact on you? Yes, Mrs. Gordon especially. I love music and it's just helped me, she's helped me kind of elevate that and in my regular school work I'd say maybe Mrs. Richardson. Okay, and you play a number of instruments, don't you? Yes, I play the flute and I play the saxophone. Which one do you prefer? The flute. That's the one I've been playing since 6th grade. I picked up the saxophone probably in 7th around there, so. Any plans to pick up any other instruments? Um, I think if I decide to kind of go with music I will, but if I decide to kind of just keep that as a hobby, I'll just keep with my flute and saxophone. Okay, so you've offered a wonderful segue into where you might be going next. So we graduate here in just a couple short months. What are your plans post high school? My plans are to go to Saginaw Valley and I'm going to major in elementary education actually. Elementary education? Why the youngins? Um, I've been around young children my whole life. My little cousins are a couple years younger than me and I've basically helped raise them since I was a kid too and I've been around young children for a long time. Okay, and do you have a grade band that you're thinking more than others? I'm kind of in between on like kind of 3rd to 5th or like 5th to 6th. Okay, so maybe even venturing into that scary middle school time. Oh yeah. There is something a little bit different about them, isn't it? Always is and always will be. So you started in 6th grade when you were here. So how was that adjustment when you moved from elementary, in a different school district even, over into our middle school? I think it's easier for young children to make that switch, but in general what I thought was oh no I'm leaving all my friends, you know. But I adjusted quickly. You know, there's people here that I also found to be good friends. Now your dad's a teacher here. Did you ever have him as a teacher? Yes, 6th and 7th grade I had him as my, I think, math and science teacher. And how'd that go over? Everyone would always accuse me of cheating or of like getting help from my dad, but I really didn't need his help very much. I think it was nice just because you knew the teacher because, I mean, went home to him, he was there. And so it was just easier to also make that switch to all grade because he, my dad was right there. If I had an issue I'd just go to him. And did that ever spill over, any of those conversations or classroom things ever spill over into the dinner table or anything like that? Sometimes he'd like talk about how bad our class was. Middle school, I think we all were kind of a bit crazy then. I can say without a shadow of a doubt that the most difficult year of my life would have been my 7th grade year. And I think there are a lot of people who would point back to their middle school years and just, they're awkward. Boys, their voices are changing. Everyone's body's going through changes. And then on top of it, you have a different freedom that you didn't have as elementary. So it is a very difficult time. It's a transition period, but you've turned out pretty well. So were there any tips or tricks that you would pass on to future middle schoolers or current middle schoolers on how to survive that three-year period of their lives and then blossom in high school? I think, like whatever I could say, it would be just don't focus too much on like how you look and like how you are perceived to others because in the end, that's all going to change. I mean, high school, you're going to look, you're going to sound, you're going to be completely different. And middle school years are kind of your years to experiment and try different things. Try different things and don't worry about what others will think of you. That's excellent advice. So let's get back to your future plans. Saginaw Valley, congratulations. Living on campus, commuting, have you made that decision yet? Yes, I'm going to live on campus. Well, excellent. And how's the rest of the family feel about that? They're fine with it. My brother's ice skating game also did the same thing and they will be graduating here at the same time I'll be going in, so. So you have a family tradition of going to SDSU? Oh, yeah. Okay. How far back does that go? My parents also went. Oh, excellent. So it continues then, huh? Oh, yeah. Okay. All right. So let's talk a little bit about your high school experience here. What kinds of opportunities maybe that other people don't know about have you experienced? Because you have a very unique schedule, something that's very different than some other high schoolers. So why don't you talk a little bit about that? Just this past year, I've been able to do some peer-to-peer and that has been a great experience. I think if you are going into high school and maybe you bump up some of your classes a little bit so that your senior year you get some hours off, I'd say that would be a great experience going to other classrooms and seeing kind of how you can be a helper there. So you talk about hours off. How exactly does that work? Because you still have to get the credits for graduation. What have you been able to do throughout your high school career to maybe lead into that kind of situation your senior year? Well, first of all, I've been able to take some college classes so I may get some of that credits. But for high school, first of all, you don't have to keep taking some math classes that you don't really need. Because there are other classes offered that I could have chosen. For example, Algebra 1, I was able to take in my 8th grade year because that's just what is offered here. That's what you can do. And so that's helped me not have a math class this year. And so I have an hour to choose what I want to do. That's excellent. All right. So I need to go ahead and throw out one of those random questions for you. So I haven't asked this one yet. It's one that I thought might be a fun one. What is a story, show, or movie that you would like to jump into and be a part of so you get to live that life, even if just for one day? Well, all the movies I like involve aliens. And I'm not sure if I want to jump into that. So I'll still choose one. War of the World. It's my favorite movie. War of the World. That's a Tom Cruise movie, right? Yes. Okay. So what is it about alien movies that really grabs your attention? I don't know. It's like that sci-fi aspect that is just so interesting. And it's always fun to see the humans beat the aliens. It would be a twist though if the aliens beat the humans, wouldn't it? It would be. And I'd probably still be okay with it. I can't recall a single one of those. Can you? No, I don't think people really like those that much. We don't really like to see our own kind being, you know, beat. Okay. Well, you've done a wonderful job so far. Many thanks to Ms. Gordon for the wonderful work she's done and Ms. Richardson with you. What advice would you give the youngest of our students, the ones who are just starting out in these hallways, who are going to work their way up through the progression of the elementary, middle, and high school? And based on your experiences here, what kinds of messages would you send to those kids other than be yourself that you mentioned before? I'd say listen to your teachers. And I know some kids have troubles at home. And what I say is find a friend that you can relate to and just try to make the most out of your years. Okay. Looking back at your time, because you're going to be walking across that stage here very soon, what is the one memory that stands out the most? What are you going to think about 20 years from now and say, that was the epitome, the high point, the best part of my time at Algrae since? Like there's a lot of like funny things that happened in middle school. But I'd say my most, like the ones that I look back on is even now in high school, like when we're in Mrs. Richardson's, we're all just kind of sitting there. We're all just kind of having fun. And we're all just kind of talking together. I think that that is what I'll really miss. Okay. Well, Liz, do you have anything else that you'd like to add to the listening community? No, I think that's about it. Well, thank you for your time today. Everyone, that's Elizabeth Beardsley, graduating class of 2023 at Algrae Sims. Wish you the best of luck. Thank you. This has been a production of the Algrae Sims School District. Thanks for tuning in and we hope you join us again soon for another in your school.