My name is McKenzie, and I am currently in my senior year at Sheldon-Williams Collegiate, where I have been a proud Spartan for four years.
Although I was very lucky with all the open doors my parents gave me growing up, as I entered high school, I reduced the amount of activities I participated in so I could excel in a select few. For the past four years, in and out of school, I have been involved in choir, band, jazz band, curling, piano, guitar, Olympic lifting, basketball and track, as well as taking on a leadership role in our student council and achieving honour roll.
From Grades 9 to 11, I played on the girls’ basketball team, receiving the MVP award from my teammates, but I had to make a tough decision to not play this year as track became a priority to me. Since I was seven years old, I have been involved in track, specifically pole vault. During high school, I have brought home three city gold medals, two provincial gold medals, and one provincial silver medal as a result of pole vaulting as a Spartan. Outside of school, I have also competed in several provincial and Western Canadian Championships, placing first in a few, and last year, I was ranked eighth nationally.
Sheldon-Williams Collegiate has offered me many opportunities to grow as a student and athlete and has built the determined person I have become today. As far as the future goes, I hope to continue pole vaulting and further my education in science next year at McGill University.