Senior Gabe Gomez - Norseman Podcast

Norseman editor Sophia Bradley sat down with senior Gabriel Gomez to talk to him about being a National Merit Finalist. Look for a more in-depth newspaper article in the first edition of the BHS Norseman newspaper coming out soon.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hey Vikes, I'm Sophia Bradley with the Norseman podcast and I'm here today with senior Gabriel
Gomez to talk to him about being a National Merit finalist. What does it mean to you to be a
National Merit finalist? I think it's definitely an academic achievement so I guess the way that
I qualified for that was through the PSAT I got a, what was it, I think it was 1480 on the PSAT.

(00:22):
There's basically a different cutoff for every state and I met the cut-off that year in order
to be considered for that award. What did you do to prepare for the test? I prepared mostly
through Khan Academy. Khan Academy has a lot of free resources for preparing for the SAT and other
courses as well so I did lots of practice tests there. It was also part of the I curriculum for

(00:50):
independent study for IB. What kind of classes are you taking this year? This year, mostly IB classes
because I'm part of the diploma program but some of the other ones are AP Calculus BC and then I
also took a class at A&M, a calculus-based physics class during the fall semester.
What are some of the schools you are hoping to attend? I've applied to MIT, Stanford, Georgia

(01:19):
Tech, and a couple of other ones, and of course UT and A&M here locally. I think they all have pretty
good programs for the major that I'm pursuing. I'm wanting to do aerospace engineering. What
career or area are you hoping to pursue? Aerospace engineering, more specifically
Aeronautical Engineering so rather than rocket science I guess airplane science. I know you're

(01:43):
taking classes at A&M right now in physics, how has that helped you prepare for college?
I guess experiencing the culture of A&M and actually being there on campus working with
other students attending a class like a student who would go there and but I think what has most
prepared me for college is probably the course load that has been through IB because the A&M

(02:05):
class did not seem like much work compared to some of the other classes that I'm currently taking.
How have IB classes helped you prepare? I guess the math has been helpful.
It prepared me for the Calculus class that I took at Blinn prior to taking that A&M class and then

(02:27):
like I was saying just the course load and being used to tackling many different areas all at once.
What have been some of the biggest challenges you have faced academically during your high school
career? I guess balancing all of the classes with the extracurriculars and sleep and eating and all

(02:54):
of that. Choir has also been difficult to balance sometimes. I think it was last year,
yeah last year during the Spring I participated in the musical. That was a tremendous time commitment
that I wasn't exactly ready for and it ended up taking several hours after school. Sometimes we'd
be done pretty late and so I guess balancing extracurriculars like that would take a lot

(03:18):
of time along with homework and all the other things that I need to do can be challenging.
What advice would you give younger students to help them be successful in high school? I would
tell them to just know the worth of the education that they're getting and make sure that they're
taking advantage of all the programs that are available. Also, all the ways to get

(03:39):
involved because like I was saying taking those large course loads has helped to get me ready
for the challenging things that I'm going to be doing during college and also to I guess
explore the different fields that are available.Thank you Gabe for coming to speak with us today.
Of course, thank you for having me.