What is your name and grade? My name is Batool Salman, I’m a senior.

What are you involved in? Well, right now, as we are speaking, I’m doing stuff for Dance Marathon. But I’m also involved in band and vocal jazz. I’m also involved in National Honor Society.

What do you love about band at NN? I like how there’s a community to it. I’ve met most of my friends from band. And I also like how everyone’s proud to be in [band]. You know there’s a stigma for sure about band kids, but most of us are proud to be in it. And we like playing our instruments.

What do you love about choir at NN? Technically I’m not in choir, I’m just in Vocal Jazz. So it’s interesting because Vocal Jazz allows people who are not even in choir to still sing because you only need to be in one performing arts group to do it. So I like how it’s inclusive. And it’s also that we sing in small groups. I think it’s just me and nine other people in the room. Because of that, it allows us to grow close to each other and understand each other really well.

What do you love about DM? Dance Marathon is such an inspiring club. I think it’s definitely been more popular in past years. But I think the members that we have now are just as enthusiastic about it as they have been in the past. So quality over quantity for sure. And I appreciate how everyone’s focused towards the same goal; helping people in whatever way we can, and this year is by helping the Harbour.

What do you love about Badminton? I love badminton because similarly to other clubs at Niles North, it also provides the community with your team, but in a different way because there’s also that sense of school pride. And then working as a team in a competitive way of course, like a sportsmanship way. It’s also just a great feeling to what is a team and do things as a team. Even if badminton is a sport and you play one on one, we’re all still a team and we all contribute to our wins and losses.

What’s your best memory from Niles North? We went to Western Michigan [University] this year for Vocal Jazz. That was pretty fun. It was a university, we didn’t really learn anything about the university but we did get to perform there. And it was fun. 

What is something that you’re proud of? I’m proud of the progress that we’ve made with Dance Marathon.

What are you doing next year? Next year I’m going to college at Northwestern [University], so I’m not going too far. But I am going to college and I’m going to be studying physics, which is exciting. Might be challenging, but I am excited for the changing environment.

Who is someone that inspires you? My mom because she’s always supporting me and making sacrifices, even if it means she can’t have something, to make my dreams come true.

What piece of advice would you give a freshman version of yourself? I would tell myself to not be as afraid of change as I was because I was so afraid to make new friends, I was hanging on to– not that it’s bad to keep old friends from middle school– but change is fine. And I think that saying yes to everything, even things you’re not sure about or that are new to you or that you don’t think you might be interested in, because interest can change over time. And saying yes to stuff is always a great way to start new things and get involved in new things.