Senior Elina Suska: From Holy Trinity High School in Ottawa, Canada to Gunn High School
At the beginning of August, senior Elina Suska moved from a charming city with historic buildings to a town at the heart of Silicon Valley鈥檚 technological innovations. The move from Ottawa, Canada to Palo Alto was prompted by a job opportunity offered to
Suska鈥檚 father. 鈥淚t was a big change for me to move here,鈥 she said. 鈥淚t all went very quickly from the moment we left Ottawa.鈥
She quickly found herself starting school at Gunn. Suska noted that compared to her school in Ottawa, Gunn provided a very different experience, especially since the school puts a lot of emphasis on academic validation. 鈥淭he mindset here is pretty different,鈥 she said. 鈥淕unn focuses on academics and doing well on your grades. You have to do well in school.鈥
Even though her previous school, Holy Trinity High School, is also known to be academically strong, Gunn proved to be more competitive. 鈥淲e were focused on our academics at Holy Trinity High School, but not so much like here,鈥 Suska said. 鈥淚 feel like there鈥檚 a lot more competition about that.鈥
In order to graduate, Suska needs to take more classes than she had planned, and sometimes she finds the new workload overwhelming. 鈥淚鈥檝e had to take so many classes just to graduate from the school,鈥 she said. 鈥淪pecifically, I have to take economics and physics, which are a lot on my schedule.鈥
Economics and physics are both classes that weren鈥檛 mandatory in her previous school; due to Gunn鈥檚 requirements, Suska had to give up taking some of the classes she wanted. 鈥淚鈥檓 planning on going into computer science, and for that field I had wanted to take physics, calculus and statistics,鈥 she said. 鈥淏ut because there are other course requirements like English, I had to bump statistics and chemistry out of my schedule. Now, I鈥檓 only taking physics and calculus.鈥
To meet new people, Suska decided to participate in a school sport and ultimately joined the water polo team. 鈥淛oining the
water polo team helped me to settle in,鈥 she said. 鈥淭he team and players are all so nice.鈥
Along with water polo, she has met a lot of friendly people who made her feel welcomed at Gunn. 鈥淚鈥檝e met some really nice people,鈥 she said. 鈥淗owever, it鈥檚 been a decent experience. Again, it鈥檒l take me a while longer to fully adjust and settle in.鈥