Brag Sheet

Sydney has always had a love for bottlenose dolphins and was interested in marine biology so in the summer of 2009 Sydney attended Girl Scout sleep away camp to get certified for open water Scuba diving. The following summer our girl spent six weeks in Taiwan at the university of Tamking , Taipei for an emersion program that was attended by teenagers from across the states, and from around the globe. The program was taught entirely in Mandarin focusing on written characters, pronunciation, Chinese culture and the arts. Sydney enjoyed the independence, culture, food and the weekly day trips and the new found friendships. Sydney still maintains those friendships and is eager to meet up with one of her girlfriends that she met that summer next year in Washington D.C.
As a sophomore Sydney took photography and earned her certificate to be a lifeguard. Sydney was able to gain employment at a local pool for the summer as a lifeguard. Sydney used her earnings that summer to purchase herself a laptop, a cell phone and a Nikon camera, lenses and accessories. Sydney took more photography classes in her junior year and has developed an impressive port folio of work. Some of her photos grace the walls of Strath Haven HS. Photography has allowed our Sydney to view her world through an artist’s eye; she was recognized by her photo instructor with an award for photography last year.
May 6th 2012 Sydney was a volunteer bicycle marshal for the great five borough bike tour in New York City. It is the biggest single day bicycle event in the U.S. that is capped at 30,000 riders. As a volunteer she had to report to Battery Park in lower Manhattan for a 5:00 am check in. Then assist the 30,000 riders at the start with directions and any information pertaining to the ride and any general inquiries. Then we rode with the tour through the traffic free streets of Manhattan and the four outer boroughs, assisting riders with bicycle repair, traffic and crowd control, and to report