Elizabeth Otto is a senior at Columbus North. She attended Stewart School from 1995 to 2002. She attended kindergarten here but not preschool. She has always liked reading and says that Stewart helped her with that in her later years.
Elizabeth has many memories of her time at Stewart. She says that all the birthday celebrations here at Stewart were very fun, but her favorite thing was meeting people when she was here, and still being friends with them. She went to Bradford Woods, Space Camp, and Chicago as well as going paging. During her sixth grade year they were planning their Washington D.C. trip, but then 9/11 happened so instead they went to Chicago. She remembers going to Bradford Woods and spending time with her friends. She enjoyed participating in the Haunted House and making food for the Thanksgiving Feast and the Valentine’s Tea. She was very nervous about her graduation speech and remembers thanking all of the teachers and her parents. She still is not a big public speaker.
Reading was Elizabeth’s favorite subject, and she was always excited about getting new books. She had many favorite teachers, but the ones that remain here are Mr. Maulin, Mrs. Carmichael, Mr. Yates, and Mr. Hileman. She participated in Spell Bowl and Math Bowl while here at Stewart. She will remember making tie-dye shirts for both of them. For Girl Scouts she remembers working on patches and seeing the “Little Shop of Horrors.” She never really had a difficult subject, but learning something new was always hard.
Upon leaving Stewart, she was nervous about starting middle school, but quickly got used to it. Some of her friends were in her classes at Northside. After leaving Stewart Elizabeth continued participating on a math team. It was called Mathletes, which is a middle school version of Math Bowl. She is still in Girl Scouts, just in a different group. She says that even though the homework at Stewart was hard it was worth the effort because it helped prepare her for middle school. “I think the hands-on approach at Stewart has really helped me learn how to visualize problems, which helps with harder math and science questions,” says Elizabeth.
Elizabeth joined some Science teams and school choir at North. She works on the Triangle, which is the school newspaper. She also joined some service organizations which do a lot of work for the community, and Amnesty International, a charity that raises money for world hunger.
Her family has traveled to many places but her favorite vacation ever was when they went to Washington D.C. She is interested in history, so she enjoyed seeing the museums and monuments. “The architecture in D.C. is amazing as well. It’s just a really beautiful and interesting place,” says Elizabeth.
She was really excited recently when she was named a National Merit Semifinalist, which is a scholarship competition. She is also on a Science Team called Science Olympiad. She has won awards for that in subjects like astronomy. She has participated in some service projects through the National Honor Society (NHS) and Girl Scouts. She helped organize a blood drive for NHS, where students donated blood during the school day. She really likes participating in service projects because it is a great feeling to help the community.
Elizabeth has not decided what college she will attend, but has applied to many. She is going to see which ones she gets accepted to and what financial aid she will be offered. She is planning to major in astronomy and astrophysics. She enjoys the whole subject. She really likes science and research, and can’t imagine anything cooler than studying the universe. Her greatest accomplishment is all the work she has done for the science organization in which she participates. In addition to the competition which she thinks is a lot of fun, they organized a science camp for children over the summer which she enjoyed very much.
Her advice for students is to “always do your best work. Even if something may not be your best subject, most teachers really appreciate someone who gives their best effort.”