 My name is Cara Madero. I'm a senior. I'm from Kings Mountain, North Carolina. I went to summer ventures the summer before I enrolled in science and math and I was waitlisted and I met a bunch of kids there who were coming to science and math and they got me really excited and really pumped about possibly getting into the school. There are a lot of very gifted and talented students here and I think at first it was very intimidating the way they work and and just the energy that they can put into their academics and make it seem effortless. One of the most difficult things to do here is to keep a balance between your academics and your friends and you know your work service. Sleep. Sleep is a big deal to you. It's something that you learn here. I think that it's just another way of us accepting the greater challenge. It's what the school is about. I've been involved in jazz combo, theater, I play tennis. I've also been very involved in student government. I was a junior senator and then I was elected as a senior senator and which gave me the opportunity to chair a number of different committees on student government and try to make a positive impact. I like student government because it's the most direct way to affect I guess the school on a wider level on a more wide-scale level. You can affect the school in anything you do individually but if you want to affect every student in one broad sweep by a positive policy change, student government is the best way to do that. It's kind of the most effective way for student communication. I decided to go to Yale because it's the next greatest challenge that I can accept. You can do whatever you want to do if you're motivated to do it. I feel like the process of becoming a better person makes you a better person. This school has done a lot for me and has changed me in a lot of really positive ways. Not so much that I've become a different person but I've become the person who I feel like I'm supposed to be.