The air felt fresh as she dipped her hand in the water and smelled the greenery around. The Shoal Creek stream rushed as senior Ellie Meisel made the trip to __ with the EDGE stream team.
Meisel is involved in five clubs all around the school. She is in EDGE, where she participates on the stream team, which is an environmental conservation group that monitors the health of streams around KC. She is also the president of HOSA, is involved in chamber orchestra and is in the pit for the upcoming musical, the Phantom of the Opera. Additionally, Meisel is involved in speech and debate, and the women’s empowerment club.
“I’ve really enjoyed EDGE. I really like the fact that it’s interdisciplinary. Sophomore year, I did a project on policy and science, and seeing them come together was really fun and exciting. And then I just love the teachers and the community there.”
Meisel starts her day at her Network 53 internship, where she interns as a nurse at Liberty Hospital. The next few hours, she heads to Edge, a program where students learn by producing hands-on projects. At the end of her day, Meisel is also the president of HOSA (Health Occupations Students Association), where she wants to join HOSA with Days for Girls in order to make a health PSA for menstrual cups, and in her pursuit of medicine, would like to take an initiative on maternal mortality rates. Along with that, she participates in orchestra, women’s empowerment, speech and debate and stream team.
“They are all good [the clubs] for different reasons. I love speech and debate because I love the research aspect of it, and I am a little bit competitive, so that part I really enjoy. Orchestra is my stress relief, it just makes me happy and is the magic part of my day,” Meisel said.
EDGE is a program our school holds which is a change from the traditional high school learning environment. Students have all of their core classes there and are able to go at their own pace while also making their own schedules. Meisel attends every day as part of her schedule and enjoys the untraditional approach to high school.
“I have a strong passion for social justice, and I was kind of tired of the traditional education path, so I joined [EDGE] because of the social justice aspect, and I wanted to try something new,” Meisel said.
One challenge Meisel faced was during her junior year, when she was taking four AP classes and balancing soccer too, finding time for homework, which felt overwhelming at times.
More students are taking the medical route as time goes on. “The total number of students in the nation’s medical schools has reached a new high, approaching 100,000 for the first time, even as applications for the 2024-25 academic year declined,” According to data released today by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC).
Meisel plans to go pre-med after high school and incorporate social justice by advocating for patient groups. This is where her speech and debate experience will come into play, where she will work to join the two fields together. Her top choice for college is currently the UMKC 6-year Med program.
To find more information related to EDGE, go to edge.lps53.org, for more related to HOSA, their instagram is lhs._.hosa and for women’s empowerment, theirs is lhs_wec.
