Mikayla Lindsey has two major passions in life: music and understanding how things work.
Lindsey, who will share this year’s salutatorian honor at Whiteland Community High School with classmate Lucy Mendoza, has been in bands since she was in sixth grade. She is in concert band and marching band, and her participation has taught her life lessons, she said.
“Definitely band (means the most to me),” Lindsey said. “I’ve been doing it since I was in sixth grade. It taught me a lot about music and helped me see how important music is in life. It taught me lessons in leadership and how to be a better person. It helped me meet friends and open my circle and see things in a different way.”
Lindsey’s desire to see things in a different way led her towards psychology, which stems from a passion for science, she said.
“Science helps explain a lot for me,” Lindsey said. “I like to understand how things work. I’ll study psychology at Northwestern in the fall. It helped develop that passion.”
Lindsey plans on remaining rooted in science at Northwestern, where she will pursue biology as an accompanying double major. Beyond college, however, she will narrow her career interests to either psychology or psychiatry, she said.
Through her time in high school, it was her friends who motivated her most to achieve, she said.
“(It’s been) the group of friends. Every day I wake up and go to school and I’m really happy to be here. I’m happy to work and (to push) each other to be better and have a consistent group of people to motivate me all four years,” Lindsey said.
“I’m going to miss the familiarity here. I had the same group of friends for so long; it helped me be a better person. I will miss walking through the halls knowing what I’m getting into and what to expect every day and the routine of it all.”
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Name: Mikayla Lindsey
Age: 18
Parents: Allison Lindsey and Steve Wire
Residence: Greenwood
College plans: Studying psychology and biology at Northwestern University
Career goals: Psychology or psychiatry
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