After finishing her last class, sophomore Ashley Smyth got out her favorite yellow mixing bowl along with flour, butterscotch chips and the remaining ingredients. In no time, she had baked three dozen cookies. 

As a sophomore rep on the student council and the leader of the Pride and Patriotism committee, Smyth baked cookies for the local fire station to deliver on Sept 11. 

“The reason we did this was to show our appreciation for all that firefighters currently do for our community and recognize the firefighters of America’s major role in minimizing damage after Sept.11, 2001,” Smyth said.

Aside from being the head of the Pride and Patriotism committee, she leads an extremely busy schedule while being a part of numerous clubs. Besides student council, she is a member of science fair club, theatre and debate. Smyth attends rock climbing practice three times a week outside of school and debate twice a week. 

However, she still finds a way to balance her grades as well as her extracurricular activities. 

“I personally find my weekly schedule a bit full, but I try to manage the best I can since it could be a lot busier. In my opinion, I appreciate how rock climbing keeps me fit and moving around,” Smyth said. “I find myself having to leave some after school meetings early to just make it rock climbing. I feel like I’m managing alright with keeping my workload afloat so far.” 

Smyth is also successful academically, and she keeps a whiteboard on her wall in order to write important notes down.

She finds a useful way to manage her time throughout the week. Most of her activities such as Student council and science fair take place during school hours. 

“I’m dealing with a heavy load of academic work,” Smyth said.“To manage my time, I often attend virtual school while sitting right next to this board and that’s because I’m then enabled to simply get up and write new events as soon as they come up so I can better plan out my upcoming time.” 

However, Smyth still finds time to unwind despite having a busy schedule. She finds a way to juggle her grades and clubs at the same time by being able to control her commitments. Being over committed is an area of challenge for Smyth.

“There’s so much to do in every single one of my clubs that I need to choose what I participate in wisely if I want to keep on having time to sleep. Being able to regulate my commitments has helped me to keep my grades afloat so far, but it isn’t exactly something that can be given little attention,” Smyth said. “Despite the time it takes to be a part of these activities, I still try to take some time to unwind which usually takes the form of hiking with my dog named Shipley.”

Regardless of being a part of several clubs at school, her heart is mainly dedicated to the student council. She joined Student council freshman year. Smyth said being a student council representative comes with a rewarding experience due to countless responsibilities in order to serve the community as a positive role model. 

“To me, being a Student Council representative is pretty fun and rewarding. All of the other officers are all so nice and motivated to ensure our school has a great year which contributes to the supportive idea brainstorms that always occur during our weekly meetings. It’s all totally worth every second to see our school benefit,“ Smyth said. “I believe it’s important to develop a community within the classes especially now that everyone feels so isolated with the pandemic and all. In my opinion, simply being available is the biggest responsibility of all with any officer position in any club or organization because who knows when your club will need you.”

For Smyth, being capable of managing her time has played an important role in her schedule despite being involved in many clubs. This has allowed her to find an effective strategy in order to balance grades and activities. Managing her time has let her deal with the pressures of  extracurricular activities. 

“Time management is a crucial life skill because it really lightens people’s stress loads and promotes positive, healthy habits. If I had no time management at all, well, I would probably have already crumbled under the pressure of deadlines by now,” Smyth said. “I’ve learned that doing every single piece of work first thing isn’t necessary, and strategically spacing out work time can overall make people, like myself, more efficient.”