Elisa Nerenberg is a hard-working and passionate senior at John Adams High School. Over the course of her four exciting years at Adams, Elisa has participated in numerous clubs, sports, and activities, which fully contributes to the outstanding individual that she is. She has been on the John Adams Girl’s Swimming team since her freshman year, something that has become a true passion of hers. Elisa has also been in the marching band all four years of her high school career, where she enjoys playing the mellophone. In addition, she has been a part of the jazz band since her sophomore year playing the trumpet. More of her extracurricular activities include National Honor Society for the past two years and Spanish Club and Spanish Honor Society for the past three years. Some of the achievements she is most proud of include earning Most Valuable Player on the swim team her junior year and becoming a representative in National Honor Society. Academically speaking, Elisa is on track to graduate with an IB certificate. She takes four different IB classes and two AP classes. Elisa sure is a busy student, but she completely enjoys being so involved with her school. She loves that she is able to balance participating in extracurricular activities, keeping up with her high level classes, along with having a personal life.

Growing up, Elisa attended Kennedy Primary Academy for elementary school. When she was in first grade, her family traveled to live in Chile for a year. This allowed her to have such a vast amount of experience hearing and speaking Spanish; so much so that when she returned to the United States, they tested her proficiency in language and determined that her first language was Spanish. From then on, she has always been placed in the higher Spanish classes. Her dad even speaks to her in Spanish when they are at home. Elisa is forever grateful for the incredible opportunity that she was given at such a young age. She went on to attend LaSalle Academy for middle school where she began playing the trumpet for the band and participated in ISSMA competitions all four years. Throughout her middle school career, Elisa was always an honor roll student and was placed in the honors classes. 

At just six years old, Elisa discovered her passion for swimming. She began swimming at the YMCA, but since COVID, she now swims competitively at the South Bend Swim Club. She spends most of her free time swimming: twice a day and eleven times a week. Elisa says, “If I am not swimming, I am usually hanging out with friends: either going out to get food, going on study dates, or going bowling.” She values the time that she gets to spend with her friends outside of school, along with the hours and hours she puts into swimming. 

Elisa has thoroughly enjoyed making so many memories during her time at John Adams. Some of the most memorable moments of hers include jamming out to music at swim practice with her teammates, performing at a marching band competition and a football game all in the same day (and the band performed better at the football game), seeing the look on her friends’ faces when they were handed a difficult test in Mr. Bart’s class, and winning city her junior year for swimming. 

During her senior year, Elisa is looking forward to her senior prom, making it to state in marching band, making it to state in swimming, senior night for both band and swimming, and finding out where she gets accepted into college. She hopes to apply to University of Wisconsin-Madison as her first choice, and Ohio State University and Indiana University as her second and third respectively. She plans on majoring in global health or environmental health with a minor in business. With one fulfilling and eventful senior year ahead, Elisa is excited to create new memories and to discover where her future takes her.