Briefly describe any of your extracurricular activities, employment experience, travel, or family responsibilities that have shaped who you are.

I listen to the echoes of my panting as I sprint up and down the flights of stairs. An outsider would likely assume my peers and I are members of a soccer team. They would be baffled to learn that in my ballet school’s curriculum is a Progressing Ballet Technique (PBT) class, where agile dancers train muscle memory through cardio, goblet squats, and every exercise ball activity imaginable. Brushing off my sweat, I understand that dancers are athletes, not just artists. Here we gather the strength to balance on a three-inch long satin pointe shoe box executing sixteen fouettes, or a saut de basque, achieving height and a perfect split as we spring into the air. I remember how difficult it was to even balance on the ball during my first PBT class, and now I execute jete leaps, sissones, and triple pirouettes with ease.