Between classes at North Penn, students might catch someone running to get to class. Junior Katie Alesi might always be rushing to class, but rushing the school day is the last thing she is trying to do. With a passion for school, Alesi spreads her positivity throughout the halls always trying to make people around her happy.

“I don’t like when people around me are sad, and if that’s the case, I do everything in my power to cheer them up. Sometimes I can be a little meddlesome with, but I think it’s still okay, and pushes positive energy, making others realize that somebody out there cares,” said Alesi.

Alesi finds caring to be one of the most important qualities. With everybody being stressed out about high school and getting into college, she feels that everyone has a story underneath the generic teenage label that is worth finding out. Extracurricular activities is one of the ways Alesi learn about new people and what others like to do in their free time. This is also a way for her to find out what people have in common and make new friends.

“Outside of school I like music. I don’t really do that much here musically, because I didn’t make any of the groups, but I play the piano and guitar in my free time and I sing both English and Spanish. I love classic rock; that’s probably my favorite genre of music because of the Beatles. Also, I love to run, it’s something I do in my pass time. I also love Spanish. I love speaking Spanish with my neighbors, friends, and people in the building that speak Spanish,” explained Alesi.

With the variety of things that Alesi does in her free time, it gives her many opportunities to meet new people and make new friends. Not only does participating in clubs prove to be important to her, but also helping others. To Alesi, helping others is finding something that could be better in somebody else’s life and finding a way to get it 100% better. 

“I believe my positivity is fueled by the people around me. I’m a firm believer that it’s good to meet everyone around, because everybody has a story that you don’t know. I want to do everything I can to make someone feel comfortable, but I know sometimes I go too far and make them feel uncomfortable. I try everything I can to make sure the people around me are cared about,” said Alesi.

With no surprise, Alesi’s goal in life is to help others in any way possible. Over the summer she worked at Twin Spring Farm. Working with thirteen three-year-old girls was thought by her to be a nightmare, but she ended up learning a lot about herself and three-year-old girls. She learned how to help them and make them feel safe, and she hoped to spark their personalities at such a young age.

“Working with children has inspired me. I didn’t go meet someone my age when I was 3 years old, and I think it’s really cool they had that opportunity at summer camp at such a young age. I think at three they only know their parents; they haven’t been exposed to the world around them. It’s cool that they get to see the perspective of people and see what their lives might be like in the future,” said Alesi.

Having interest in learning about others has helped Alesi figure out wat she wants to do in life. She enjoys learning about even kids her age, since she doesn’t know everything about teenagers. Alesi isn’t sure of what her future holds, but as of now she has the calling to be a teacher. She finds it important to help the children at a young age to learn positivity and feel welcome and happy with the peers around them. She feels that this would parallel with being a teacher pretty well.

“I definitely want to be one of those teachers that the children remember. I had a kindergarten teacher that I loved. She made such an impression on me and taught me so much. I think that she was fabulous and in third grade I said to myself, ‘I want to be just like my kindergarten teacher.’ She was really amazing and I think she was one of the people to inspire me to be who I am today,” said Alesi.

Wanting to be a teacher, it’s not surprising Alesi loves school. When she comes to school she loves seeing the people she cares about and the people that care about her. Although most would agree that waking up at 5:45am every morning to come to school is a drag, Alesi believes there’s just some motivation somewhere and she believes it’s the people around her. Therefore, she goes through all her classes with positivity.

“Katie is one of the nicest students I have met.  She always comes in with a smile and a funny story.  Seeing how much she loves Spanish makes me very happy!  I also think she should go out for the track team, because I have seen her sprint to her 8th period class,” said Mrs. Brittany Atkiss, a Spanish Teacher at NPHS.

Alesi’s often running in the hallways and late to class because she likes to put time in for her friends and her studies. She memorizes all her friends’ schedules so she can find them in the hallways, because she doesn’t see all her friends that often. Her personal life is full of homework, so she makes as much time as she can for friends. 

Alesi feels that she also comes from a positive family that has always taught her that positivity is key. Also, they’ve taught her that it is important to be the person people want to be talking to. She’s learned if you want people to gravitate toward you, you have to be nice. Alesi tries hard to help anyone she can and be a friend to anyone who might need one. From this she also learned not everyone will always like her.

“There’s a great quote I live by; ‘You can be the sweetest peach in the world, but there’s always going to be somebody who doesn’t like peaches.’ So I can be as nice as I think I am, but there’s always going to be somebody out there that is not going to like me just because I know I can come across in an awkward and weird way. I think I’m trying to be nice, but people might think I’m not trying to be nice; people think I’m weird. I think it’s important for me to understand that there are people who just aren’t going to like me, and I don’t let it bother me,” said Alesi.