A student during the day, a ballerina at night
A fully planned career since the age of 3, Asia Griffen, 9, has decided to become a professional ballerina and be part of a professional company like the New York City or Boston’s Ballet. Griffen doesn’t let any of her priorities get in her way of becoming a professional ballet dancer. In order to do so she has to stay on track with school and work hard to stay at the level she’s in. She choose to take classes in the learning center to have a much more flexible schedule and have time to do other work from other classes.
“ She’s such a beautiful person inside and out, she always has a tight schedule and is rarely able to hang out after school because she’s always dancing,“ Samantha Alvarez, 9 said.
Griffen has been dancing for eleven years straight, and it all started when her mom took her to a Nutcracker Performance. Not only did she enjoy watching the show, but she wanted to be the one up on stage. Griffen took things seriously and has worked hard since then. For the last two years she has been part of two summer intensives, one at Los Angeles and the other one was at the American Ballet Theatre. This summer she’ll be going to the Boston Ballet Summer Intensive, where she’ll be dorming at the Boston University.
“ It takes a lot of dedication to get to the level I am at right now and definitely a lot of hard work to dance right after school and still get all my homework done,” Griffen said.
Ballet involves hours of practice and hard work to perfect a professional level routine. Griffen dances for two to three hours a day for five days a week. A total of 16 hours a week plus 45 hours of school. Not counting the time it takes her to do her homework and other activities for ASB and clubs. The Learning Center helps Griffen keep up with her work and sometimes when she’s not working on her course she works ahead or does homework.
“Griffen is a fantastic student, who cares very much about academics, her life goal of being a professional ballet dancer. She is a mature ninth grader, and very focused, ” Learning Center supervisor Gail Cavanaugh said.
Andrea Cardoso is a senior, who has decided to join Musket for the first time. She was born Jan 10, 2001 in Escondido California. She went to Orange Glen Elementary, but moved to Mexico in 2011, because her dad got deported. After living 4 years in mexico, she decided to move back to Escondido because she wanted to get a better education and become a doctor, since in Mexico teachers only care about getting paid and don’t care about the students’ education. Coming here was the best option for her to pursue her dreams. She currently is living with her aunt, but her parents are still in Mexico.
Outside of school Cardoso plays basketball. Last year she was on the girls varsity basketball team and plans to join this year again. Cardoso spends her free time at the mall, starbucks, or at home watching netflix. She is currently taking Advanced Placement Calculus and literature and Human Anatomy Honors, so her free time is limited because she has to study or do homework. She’s also in...
