Fall Student-Athlete Spotlight
Live Oak recently recognized three student-athletes with the Fall Student-Athlete Spotlight. Eighth graders Gibson Eberhart and Mikaela Ho, who participated on the Live Oak cross country team this year, and Olivia Ardila, who participated on the Live Oak volleyball team, were recognized for their hard work and leadership skills in the classroom and in athletics. Read below for interviews with each student-athlete.
Gibson was interviewed and asked about his thoughts on academics and athletics. Here were his responses:
Q: What is similar between academics and athletics?
A: I think that if you don’t care about the thing you’re learning about and the sport that you’re playing, then you can’t do your best in that sport or academic.
Q: Do you find yourself working equally hard in both athletics and academics? If not, which one do you work harder at?
A: I try my best in either, but I find that I spend more time on academics.
Q: What is your favorite sport?
A: My favorite sport is skiing because I’ve been doing it for a long time and I love nature.
Q: What is your favorite subject?
A: My favorite subject right now is probably math because I feel like the things I’m learning are very interesting.
Q: Do you have an academic or athletic role model? If so, who is it and why?
A: An athletic role model of mine would be my dad because he always works hard to keep his body in shape even when he has a lot of work.
Mikaela was also interviewed on some of these same topics and here were her responses:
Q: What is similar between academics and athletics?
A: Something I find similar between academics and athletics is that you have to commit and put your time and effort into both of them to get the result you want. You will never get farther than how hard you try. It’s a lot of work but can also be very rewarding when you do well and know that the effort you put into it has paid off.
Q: What is something you’ve learned from either athletics or academics and were able to apply to the other field?
A: Something I learned from running is persistence. Cross country taught me persistence since I usually prefer sprints, but a mile and a half to two and half miles is actually a lot longer than 200 meters. It’s very hard to be persistent in cross country, because it can sometimes feel like the race will never end, or like you’ve been running for a really long time. In academics, this has helped me to do better recycles of my math quizzes and not give up on challenging problems, as well as better edit my writing for humanities projects.
Q: What is your favorite sport?
A: My favorite sports are track and field and cross country.
Q: What is your favorite subject?
A: My favorite subject is math.
Q: Do you have an academic or athletic role model? If so, who is it and why?
A: I don’t have a specific academic or athletic role model, but some people I look up to are my teachers, coaches, family, and friends. They help me to always try and improve myself, and never give up.
Olivia was also interviewed on some of these same topics and here were her responses:
Q: What is similar between academics and athletics?
A: The similarity is teamwork. In athletics, you have a team, and you lean on them for support, like you lean on your peers in academics. You might not realize how much you need the people around you regarding school.
Q: What is something you’ve learned from either athletics or academics and were able to apply to the other field?
A: I’ve learned from athletics not to be afraid because you might just miss out on something life-changing.
Q: Do you find yourself working equally hard in both athletics and academics? If not, which one do you work harder at?
A: I feel that I try my best in both, however some days I might try harder in academics because of a test, and then the next day try harder in athletics because of practice or a game.
Q: What is your favorite sport?
A: My favorite sport is volleyball.
Q: What is your favorite subject?
A: My favorite subject in school is math.
Q: Do you have an academic or athletic role model? If so, who is it and why?
Live Oak School welcomes and admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin, citizenship status, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, and faith to all the rights, privileges, programs and activities of Live Oak School. Live Oak School does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national and ethnic origin, citizenship status, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, and faith in administration of its educational policies and programs, admissions policies, Adjusted Tuition program, and athletic and other school-administered programs.