Annie Sucoloski

St. James Academy Achievements:

• Historian of the student council (2019)
• Morning Meeting helper in Seventh Grade
• Millennium Citizenship Award recipient
• Coached lacrosse in Eighth Grade while out with an ACL injury

Education after SJA:

After my education at SJA, I entered Notre Dame Preparatory School for my high school career. After my time at SJA, I realized I had some inspiration to make music, so I took guitar my freshman and sophomore years. I am the vice president of the One Love club in my school and on the lacrosse team. I am interested in architecture and interior design, so I am taking those courses in my junior year of high school along with honors courses at NDP. I hope to major in interior design at Drexel.

Education Highlights:

I verbally committed to Drexel University to play lacrosse in December.

How did SJA Prepare you for the future?

St. James prepared me for the future in multiple ways. Something special about SJA is that you can do anything you want. For example, the athletes stick with the athletes in some schools, but at St. James, there were no cliques. Everyone was friends with everyone. For me, I did the plays and had a blast with all of my peers and even people in the grades below and above me. Going to a school without judgment prepared me to be the best version of myself. I was able to walk into high school with no shame or fear.

Another way that SJA prepared me for the future was through leadership skills. While I was at St. James, I decided to take it upon myself to get more involved with the school, which is so easy to do at SJA. When I was in Seventh Grade, I decided to help out with the Fourth and Second Grade morning meetings and create fun activities. These activities were designed to connect with your peers and work on teamwork. I chose to do this because, in my grade, I noticed how close of a bond everyone had, and a lot of that stemmed from the fun we had in school. I wanted to share with other grades how great it was to grow up with friendships like the ones I made at St. James. With this responsibility of designing some activities for the morning meetings came leadership skills. I was required to take over the whole morning meeting myself, and as a 7th grader, that can be scary. The day I began my morning meeting with Mrs. Buck’s Fourth Grade class was the day that I felt like a real leader. Since then, I have never been afraid to back down from being a leader, whether in the classroom or on the lacrosse field. My leadership skills all stemmed from one place, and it was SJA.