Superb effort in the classroom pays off big-time for Katherine Reisig, who will head into her final year at Scottsbluff High School with a perfect ACT score
JEFF FIELDER Editor
SCOTTSBLUFF – Katherine Reisig never gets too stressed about grades. She just focuses on always doing her best.
“If I do my best and I get a ‘B,’ then I’m OK with that,” said Reisig, who just finished her junior year at Scottsbluff High School. “I hold myself up to a high standard grade-wise, but just striving to do my best, regardless of the grade, is what’s most important to me.”
Reisig had that mentality in April when she took the ACT for the first time.
“I wasn’t worried about it,” she said. “I felt good going into it. Plus, I expected that I would have to take it a couple times.”
Reisig, though, won’t have to re-take the ACT. Even if she did, she couldn’t do any better than she did in April.
Amazingly, Reisig’s score on the test was a 36 – a perfect score.
“It was shocking,” she said. “That was my goal, but I was kind of in disbelief that I had actually accomplished it.”
When Reisig finished taking the ACT in April, she figured she had scored in the 30s.
“I would have guessed a 34,” she said. “I felt pretty confident about all of the questions I had gone through. But there’s always a few that you’re not quite sure about, so I would have been pretty excited to get a 34.”
She said it took awhile for it to sink in that she had indeed scored a 36.
“I was at school, and the counselor and the principal told me what I had gotten, and I was like, ‘Oh, that’s cool.’ I couldn’t really believe it,” she said. “But then when I went to tell [math teacher] Shelby Aaberg about it – I was excited to tell him because he was really encouraging and helpful to me as I was preparing to take the test – it started to hit me more. I felt like I wanted to cry because I had actually done it.”
Reisig said she’s excited about the benefits that come with scoring a 36 on the ACT.
“The fact that it will help me with college applications is a major plus,” she said. “Also, the fact that I won’t have to take the ACT again is really awesome, too.”
Reisig credits the teachers she’s had during her educational career for helping her achieve such a high ACT score. She also said her family is a big reason she’s been able to perform well academically.
“My family has always been really focused on learning, so I’ve always been interested in learning as much as I could in school,” she said. “I feel like I’ve always been pretty ambitious, so I think never settling for less than my best in any class is really what prepared me for the ACT.”
Reisig said grades are important to her, but her life doesn’t revolve around getting high grades.
“I enjoy going to school, studying and getting good grades, but the thing I’m most passionate about is music. I love music,” she said. “I really enjoy math and science and learning, but music is just so unique in that you don’t need words to speak to someone. You can touch people’s souls with music. That’s why I’m in Show Choir, choir and band, and I love it so much.”
With that being said, however, Reisig doesn’t plan to pursue a career in music.
“I haven’t completely decided what I want to do yet. My sister [Faith] is in New York working to become a professional actress, but I don’t think that’s what I want to do,” she said. “Even though I don’t plan to do something musically as a career, I know that I’ll want it in my life still. In searching for a college, I want to go somewhere where I can be involved in acting and in music – both choir and band – but that’s not my top focus major-wise.”
The major she’s considering is STEM-related.
“I would love to do something in the STEM field,” she said. “I’m really interested in chemistry and computer science. I think that’s super fascinating, so I might do something in engineering.”
Because Reisig scored a 36 on her ACT, she would likely be accepted into just about any college she wants to attend. She’s currently considering MIT and California Institute of Technology, among other schools.
“I’m looking at some fairly elite colleges, so it’s nice getting a 36 on my ACT because that will help me stand out at schools like that,” she said. “There were about 3,000 students in the nation last year who got a 36 on the ACT, so I know I won’t be the only one with a perfect score applying to those schools. But just the fact that my 36 will help my application stand out a little bit is a relief to me.”
Since it was announced that Reisig scored a 36 on her ACT, she said she’s received a lot of congratulations from friends, family and people in the community. It makes her feel good, she said, being recognized for her success in school.
“Seeing people get excited about academics is really cool,” she said.
Although Reisig is excited about her future in college, she’s also looking forward to her last year of high school. Despite already having a 36 ACT score, said she’ll be just as driven in the classroom her senior year, and she looks forward to continuing to be involved in activities such as band, show choir, Math Club, softball, track and field, Tri-M, and National Honor Society.
“I’ve been on a few college visits, and the more I go on those visits, the more I get excited to experience college,” she said. “At the same time, though, I’m not quite ready to leave yet. I’m excited about the opportunities I’ll have after high school, but I’m excited that I have another year of high school left.”
Reisig said her advice to other students is simply to give one’s best effort – always.
“Never give up no matter how hard it seems because it will pay off in the end,” she said. “Even though the work might not seem worth it now, it will in the end, and you’ll be happy you put in the effort.”
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