All About Kirsten

My name is Kirsten Sue Marie S., and I am 12 years old and a sixth grader at Hobart Middle School, in Hobart, Indiana. I live with my mom, dad, and brother, Chris. We have a dog named CoCo and a cat named S'mores. I know I want to go to college, but I am not sure which one. It would be great to go to California or Florida.  Watching Trading Spaces has given me an interest in interior design and I might want to get a degree in that.

I play soccer for the Wild Cats Futbol Club and am on the U12 girls travel team. In the spring and fall we travel to Michigan and Illinois to play in leagues and tournaments. During the winter months, we play indoors at Soccerville Vetta and compete against other premiere travel teams. Last fall I was on the Hobart Middle School gymnastics team and during the winter and summer I practice 3 hours a week at Lisa's Gymnastics. In the spring I competed in the long jump and was part of the relay teams for the Hobart Middle School track team. In fifth grade I cheered for the Hobart Pop Warner teams and made the 2003-2004 Pop Warner All American Scholar Team. As a fifth grader at George Earle Elementary, I won the Stewart Mattix Scholarship last year.  In May of 2005 I was inducted into the National Junior Honor Society.

Another interest I have is drama. My brother Chris is involved in the Hobart High School Genesius Players and I had the chance to be part of the ensemble in Music Man when I was a fifth grader. Since then I have been part of the crew for Midsummer Night's Dream and FAME. Mr. Wolff, the choir teacher at Hobart Middle School and Hobart High School, asked me to help him with the high school talent show.

I am a Cadette Girl Scout in Drifting Dunes Girl Scout Troop #308.  Last year I earned the Bronze Award by building bluebird houses for the prairie behind George Earle Elementary with Amber and our friend, Corinne. I want to earn the Silver Award so I am working with Amber to finish all the activities that must be done before we can start on a project.

I have done projects for media fair competition since I was in first grade. Creating the projects always takes a long time and is a lot of hard work; the fun part is getting to travel around the United States. Miss Wilkison and I have gone to Atlanta, Dallas, Anaheim, and Chicago to pick up my awards for the AECT Student International Media Fair. Other projects I have done were:

• First Grade: "Brownie Girl Scouts, Where Girls Grow Strong" which was a website that won Best of Category at the AIME competition, but didn't win at the AECT Student International Media Fair.

• Second Grade: "Lifelong Guidelines and LifeSkills" which was a HyperStudio project that didn't win at our local AIME media fair, but won at the AECT Student International Media Fair.

• Third Grade: "The United States of America" was a Microsoft Power Point slide presentation that won only First Division at the AIME media fair, but won at the AECT Student International Media Fair.

• Fourth Grade: "God Bless America, Land that We Love" which was a webpage that won Best of Category at the AIME competition and won at the AECT Student International Media Fair.

• Fourth Grade: "Hoosier Book Award Nominees" as a Microsoft Power Point project won Second Division at the AIME competition, but as a webpage won at the AECT Student International Media Fair.

• Fifth Grade: "The 43 Presidents of the United States" was a webpage that won First Division at the AIME competition, but won at the AECT Student International Media Fair.

• Fifth Grade: "USA Girl Scout Bronze Award:  Bluebird Houses" was Microsoft Power Point that wasn't entered at AIME, but won at the AECT Student International Media Fair.

• Sixth Grade: "Natural Disasters" won Best of Category at the AIME competition, took second place in the AIME state competition, and will be entered into AECT Student International Media Fair. 

• Sixth Grade: This page, "Tips for Being a Successful Student," came in First Place at the AIME competition.  It is also being entered into the AECT Student International Media Fair.

• Sixth Grade: "The Tale of Two Students," which started out to be streaming video we could put on this site, but it was over 8 minutes long so we are entering it as a separate live action project. Because my brother, Chris, is helping us edit it, it will be entered at the high school level.

Amber and I started to notice how our friends were asking us how we got good grades. Most of the time I never knew what to say and Amber thought we should do some research on why some students are successful and some aren't. We found a lot of information on how you can become a good student and thought it would be an interesting subject for a media fair project. By doing this project I learned that I need to develop some better study habits and better time management.

We have a pretty positive relationship because we are really close. Even though we do a lot together, we have other friends that we spend a lot of time with and neither one of us gets mad. Our parents taught us to be friendly to all because we can learn from everyone.