LYNNWOOD — Fesehaye Semere is a senior at Lynnwood High School.
Question: What classes are you taking?
Answer: I’m taking a couple of AP classes, AP government and politics, AP environmental science. I’m also taking pre-calculus, drama and wind ensemble, which is an honor program for band, and a regular English 12 class.
Q: Have you been in any plays at school?
A: I’ve been cast as Donkey in “Shrek The Musical” right now. I kind of wanted to see how far my talents would take me, so I just tried out and I got that part.
Q: Is that a singing part?
A: It’s a musical. There will be a lot of singing, a lot of dancing.
Q: Plans for college?
A: I applied to various schools, UW being one of them. I’m also applying to Western and UW-Bothell.
Q: What do you like to do for fun?
A: For fun, I like reading books, various books. Also I like playing my instrument and going to pep band games to play my instrument there as well.
Q: What instrument do you play?
A: I play French horn in the wind ensemble and the mellophone in the pep band, which is basically going to basketball games or football games that are at home and then we play as a big band, it’s called pep band.
Q: What kind of books do you like to read?
A: I like to read fiction novels. I really have an interest in those.
Q: Do you have a favorite?
A: “The Hunger Games” is definitely one of them. There’s a similar series to that, the Legend series by Marie Lu.
Q: Do you have an after-school job?
A: I’m a tutor. I work three times a week after school.
Q: What does your name mean?
A: My first name is more like, the abbreviation … in Tigrinya means happiness. Fesehaye is the name version of that word.
Q: You’re planning to stay close to home for college?
A: I would like to stay in Washington. I would like to visit my parents on weekends and holidays.
Q: Have you thought about a major?
A: Environmental science has been one of my interests currently so I think I would like to pursue that in college. If you take a cultural look at our Earth right now, the habitat where we’re living is slowly degrading. I would like to find a solution to that issue.
Q: What else is going on with school?
A: I recently just joined the Black Student Union and I also work with Tri-M, it’s kind of like an honor society except for music students who volunteer throughout the community, so band and orchestra students. For example, (recently) we had a food drive for the Lynnwood food bank and we raised about 20,000 cans.
Q: Anything you want to get done senior year?
A: Finish off the school year as strong as I can and enjoy it as much as I can. I know it’s the last year of my high school experience. I want to make it the best year in high school.
Q: How much AP credit will you graduate with?
A: Last year I did college in high school for my AP U.S. history class. I also passed the test. I think I got like 20 college credits last year and then this year in May, once I pass the AP environmental science test, as well as the AP government and politics test, those both add up to 10 college credits.”
Q: What drives you toward success?
A: I grew up with my parents (Semere Tsegay and Yordanos Ghebreslasie) always pushing me to try my best and excel at everything I do. I guess that stuck with me throughout the years and now that I’m older, I just simply want to always do better.
Q: Is there someone in your life you’ve looked up to?
A: As a kid, I always looked up to my parents. They came to America with pretty much nothing and still created a family here and provided a house for their children, so that was pretty inspiring to me.
Q: Have you been able to visit your parents homeland of Eritrea?
A: I visited the summer before my freshman year. It was kind of a culture shock compared to the United States. Everybody knows each other more on a first-name basis in the area you live in more so than in Washington, where you never really get to know your neighbors or the people who live around you. Everybody was always kind and welcoming and people weren’t too shy to say hello, how are you doing, that kind of stuff.
Rikki King: 425-339-3449; rking@heraldnet.com.
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