To go away to boarding school for her freshman year of high school was Emily Liggett's choice. It was a difficult and scary decision, but not one she has regretted, not even during those occasional moments of homesickness. Up until last year, her only experiences away from home were trips to Black River Camp and going on the Academy Adventures camping trip to central Ohio the summer after her fifth grade year at the Academy.

"The first week was a blast," Emily says of her freshman year at the Lawrenceville School in New Jersey. "And then the work came."

While she found the first trimester very difficult, she got her "act together in the second trimester," she reports. "I remembered what I had learned at the Academy, the techniques for studying. These really helped me organize my thoughts."

Clearly these techniques - along with hard work - have paid off. She finished her third trimester with a 3.8 grade point average. And in spite of a rigorous year of core classes required of freshmen at Lawrenceville, she still found time for extracurricular activities. For example, she joined the tennis team in the fall, played basketball in the winter, and ran track in the spring. She also worked backstage for plays and joined a number of clubs, including the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and the Lighthouse, both student organized Christian clubs. In addition, she was involved in the Young Republicans' Club (although she admits her interest in debating members of the Young Democrats' Club waned a bit after the election), and helped raise money to send to third world countries as part of Operation Smile - an organization that helps pay for operations for children born with cleft palates.

Emily was used to being busy and active while she was at the Academy, too, in spite of ambitious academic standards she set for herself. She not only consistently received High Honors while in middle school, but she maintained over a 4.0 grade point average throughout her middle school career. On the athletic front, she was the #1 singles tennis player for two years, and played varsity basketball for three years and varsity volleyball for two years. "I loved the volleyball season!" she says, in particular the mentor program, in which varsity players work with JV players on such skills as bumping and spiking. Favorite experiences at the Academy include the Washington, D.C. trip in fourth grade. "It was the best trip I ever went on," she says. "It really opened my eyes to the world."

All of Emily's former teachers at the Academy would be proud of the confident, poised young woman she has become. With a summer spent rejuvenating at home, traveling with her family and at camp with her two sisters, she is ready for the challenges of her second year away. She looks forward to expanding core course offerings and taking ceramics in the winter term and a class on the Bible in the spring. She also looks forward to participating in some of the school's traditions for sophomores, such as getting a big sister. She herself will be a big sister for real to her own younger sister, Marjorie ('05), who will be joining her at Lawrenceville this fall.