Written by Brett Comstock
Each year, the Central High School Foundation awards two students with the DeEmmett Bradshaw Zerbe, CHS 1943, and Mason Speltz Zerbe, CHS 1948, Central High School Student of the Year Scholarships. For the class of 2024, the female recipient was 18-year-old, bright-eyed Amy Fischer. For this piece, we sat down with Amy so she could share her plans for the future and let us in on her unique perspective of the Central High experience.
In the fall, Amy will be moving to Washington D.C. to attend George Washington University for her undergraduate degree. She said that at GW, students don’t have to declare a major until the end of their sophomore year, but she is currently signed up to study political science. She will be taking advantage of this freedom, though, and said she’s going to explore other majors as well – specifically American Studies. Her decision to pursue this path in college was influenced heavily by her experience at Central and public school in general.
Because of the diversity at Central, Amy said that she was deeply impacted by “being exposed to so many different types of people and people who were being not fairly represented and not fairly compensated in so many different ways.” On her decision to study political science, she said, “I realized I wanted to better understand the system that was causing those harms and was also doing some good.” She noted that she knew many students who were benefiting from various government programs and that all of them, including her, benefited from public school. Though she could acknowledge both the harms and positive outcomes of this system, she said, “I felt like I didn’t understand it as well as I needed to if I wanted to speak on it and see how it could be changed for the better.”
Beyond noticing these systems at play, Amy appreciates the perspective on the world that her time in school gave her. She remembered from her time at Central, that because it’s such a big and diverse school, “it represented the world in ways that I didn’t see the world being represented when I visited [private schools.]” She recalled the “eye-opening experience” of seeing how some fellow students worked 2-3 jobs while juggling school and somehow making time for doing things that they loved, like participating in theatre; she said, “I don’t think those people exist in the same way in non-public schools.” Her appreciation for public school has lasted for as long as she can remember because she attended OPS schools starting in kindergarten. Her overall opinion on public school: “I loved it.”
Amy’s appreciation for Central doesn’t just stop at how it impacted her worldview; she is also thankful for the education she received. She said Central taught her that it is hard work to become the honors student she wanted to be, and it is a struggle sometimes, but it’s still very possible. Through the various classes she had to take, she said, “I learned I am not a STEM girlie, absolutely not,” but that she was still pushed to grow and step out of her comfort zone and said, “[Now] I can do statistics and I understand not only how to do it, but how it will apply to me.” Though her education was comprehensive, she loved that she still had the freedom to take classes that would be more relevant to her future endeavors.
Amy was also one of nineteen students in her class who were part of the International Baccalaureate (IB) program, which she also feels prepared her for her future pursuits as a student. Part of her education in IB included spending a year and a half researching and writing her 4,000-word extended essay on the gender differences that women faced in the Holocaust. In writing this paper, she was able to go on a trip with Central to Europe to learn more about the Holocaust – including visiting the concentration camps Dachau and Auschwitz. Her goal in writing this paper was to strike a balance between some of the “gruesome details” and making it digestible enough that she could show her classmates, “because we don’t get taught as much about the Holocaust as I think we should.” She said that writing this paper also gave her new avenues of research to potentially explore one day, should she decide to attend graduate school.
After college, however, Amy said that she is tentatively planning on attending law school. Her time at Central, around students of all different backgrounds, showed her that “not everybody has somebody who could stand up for them, and also has somebody who understands what they need help with.” She hopes to one day be able to advocate for people in this way, especially because “the US legal system can be very confusing…I’ve seen that at Central – kids not understanding what was happening, through no fault of their own.” She continued, “I don’t understand the legal system at eighteen, but the hope is eventually I will, and I can help those people who need help.”
Part of what contributed to Amy’s fierce love of her time as an Eagle was all of the extracurriculars she was able to participate in. Theatre was her main interest, but she enjoyed doing a wide array of activities. When she first got to campus, after the initial COVID-19 lockdown semesters, Amy joined the track team. She admitted running wasn’t exactly her forte, but she ended up becoming a thrower after a gentle suggestion from coaches. Amy was also the secretary of her senior class and was a member of the National Honor Society. While these were the activities that she was officially signed up for, she also liked to dip her toe in all kinds of other activities as a casual participant and helper.
Because of the Central community’s profound impact on Amy, this scholarship is very special to her. She said that “this [scholarship] in particular had a different level of significance to me than my college applications or other scholarships,” because, she said, the people who would be reviewing her application were going to be “people that I know, and that had watched me grow…and who knew parts of my story that I wouldn’t be able to explain in the word limit that I had.” She said that receiving this award is an honor and, “I think that it is also a testament to every person at Central who helped shape me over the four years.”
This summer, Amy will be working at the Central High School Foundation and is looking forward to spending time at her family’s cabin in Minnesota.
Congratulations, Amy, and good luck in the fall!
