Lewis and Clark High School senior successful by just going for it
Minutes before stepping into a debate tournament, Lewis and Clark High School senior Ashley Amado received an email from Stanford University. Knowing she wouldn’t be able to focus on anything else, she opened it.
Amado didn’t make it far into the email after reading the word “congratulations” in the first sentence.
“I couldn’t resist automatically screaming,” she said. “It really gave me a boost going into the tournament because I had the mind-set of even if I lose every round it will be fine. Just go for it.”
Amado’s “just go for it” mind-set wasn’t something new for her in that moment. It is a mind-set she has carried all her life and made her the first member of her family to go to college.
“It’s really exciting because my mom did not have an opportunity to get that much of an education,” Amado said. “It’s cool to be able to do things to show that her hard work and sacrifice paid off. It’s all really exciting, but at the same time I feel a lot of pressure.”
That pressure is the feeling to continue succeeding and keep the “forward momentum” going.
In high school, Amado succeeded in the classroom, being recognized as a National Merit Hispanic Scholar, but also in her extracurricular activities.
In addition to being a member of the debate team, Amado is in her school’s orchestra, on student council, an officer of the National Honor Society and a volunteer for Planned Parenthood Teen Council – a group of teens that do peer-led sex-ed and health classes.
“I naturally tend to sign up for everything,” Amado said. “If it seems like I have time to do something I will usually say yes. Managing all of my clubs and classes has (been my biggest challenge).”
Where many parents may step in to ease their child’s workload, Amado’s parents step back, allowing her to work through it herself.
“Her work ethic has always been amazing,” Amado’s father said. “She has always taken it seriously and has done it on her own with no help from me or Mom. She just goes at it and when you ask her ‘How can I help?’ there is nothing. She says ‘I got it.’ And I have learned that when she says she’s got it, she’s got it.”
Amado said her work ethic will continue at Stanford, where she plans to narrow her extracurriculars to orchestra and activism while pursuing a degree in either chemical engineering or biological engineering.
“I know some people who have known what college they wanted to go to and what they wanted to study for forever,” Amado said. “For me, I just want to take as many opportunities as possible and try my hardest and see where that takes me. I just need not to worry and know that everything will work out in the end.”