Grace Collins – a senior, student athlete, and nature connoisseur, is on the path to graduate John Adams High School this June and start a new chapter of her life. Grace is a partial IB student and a member of the girls’ tennis team, as well as the Spanish and National Honor Societies.

Grace has been on the girls’ tennis team throughout all four years of her time at Adams. It is an activity that has kept her active and allowed her to hang out with friends. Additionally, it has proven to be a form of discipline. She highly recommends that those who are interested try out for the team. “It’s fun. You get to meet a lot of new people and expand your horizons within sports,” she says. 

One of Grace’s many interests include nature. She loves surrounding herself by natural scenery and spends much of her time hiking the trails at Saint Patrick’s Park. Grace was able to pursue her regard for the environment on a higher level this year by signing up for environmental systems and societies, an IB class taught at John Adams. This has been one of her favorite classes that she’s taken this year – she enjoys the content of the course and it is an area that she would like to find a career in.

Grace will be continuing her education at Purdue University in West Lafayette, where she plans to study natural resources and environmental science. She is not yet sure what career she would like to pursue, but she is very interested in combining her two interests – writing and the environment– into one and possibly being a journalist for the National Geographic magazine. Grace has also expressed interest in forestry as an area of study. 

One of Grace’s fondest memories from her four years at Adams is the field trip she recently took with the IB World Religions class and the History of the Americas class to Chicago. She had the opportunity to visit a Buddhist temple and a Holocaust museum. The trip as a whole was very fun, and Grace enjoyed being in the Windy City.

Grace has always wanted to live in Chicago and sees herself living there for at least five or ten years of her life. However, her affection for nature is equally strong. “After I live in Chicago, I want to go somewhere more natural,” Grace says. She believes that living in a state like Oregon would be peaceful and would put her at ease. 

If there is one piece of advice that Grace would impart on those considering joining the IB program, it is to know how much you can handle. “Really know everything you can about the IB program before you join it – you don’t want to be putting yourself through something that you don’t necessarily need to…but at the same time, it can be really helpful and really developing,” Grace says. 

There is no doubt that Grace will be leaving an impact on John Adams and its students after she graduates. Grace has been an incredible friend, teammate, and classmate during her four years at Adams, and Purdue is fortunate to be able to call her its own.