Changing Perspectives
Katie Schimmel’s Road to Classroom Confidence

I never thought I would be taking an online class. In the past, I have thought of online classes to be for students who don’t want to spend the time and effort to go to class 2-3 times per week. My opinions have changed. I am a first semester senior hoping to graduate 1 semester early in December. I am an accounting major from Brentwood, Tennessee and have lived in the Nashville area for the majority of my life.
My academics have always been a huge passion of mine ever since I made the transition from Brentwood Middle School, a well thought of public middle school, to Franklin Road Academy, a prestigious Christian private school. My parents became overly concerned about me in middle school because I was making straight D’s and F’s and didn’t know how to apply myself because I lacked so much confidence in the classroom.
It was one afternoon early in the spring semester of my 8th grade year when I sat down with the Upper School Dean at Franklin Road Academy to review my application to the school for high school. I can vividly remember him trying not to laugh at my grades and tell me how much harder private school would be for me in coming from such a loose environment. At that moment I changed. My academic goals changed after I was accepted into FRA for high school. I became a straight A student and graduated with honors at a 3.7 cumulative GPA.
After realizing how good I could be at something once I applied myself, I