By LHHS student Morgan Huffman

With academic pressure, high stress levels and homework piled high, life during high school could become a balancing act between grades and extracurricular activities. Lake Havasu High School junior Chanelle Fernandez understands this all too well.

Fernandez is currently enrolled in several rigorous classes, including Advanced Placement (AP), dual enrollment, and honors classes. School work alone can often be time consuming.

“I stay up late most of the time to get things done, and I also try to do it during school, during lunch, whenever I have free time in between classes,” she said.

With the addition of finals week, during which all students take assessment tests worth between 20 and 25 percent of their grades, school can be especially stressful.

Still, Fernandez is calm and level-headed in the face of heavily-weighted tests. “I try to balance it,” she said, when discussing her studies. Fernandez emphasized putting her most difficult subjects first, making sure that she is well prepared.

“As of right now, my most troubled class is AP [chemistry] so that’s the one I need to focus on during weekends as well during the week,” she said. She also said she would work to study the subject throughout the school year.

submitted photo Morgan Huffman

Fernandez is also a member of four different clubs, as well as taking ballet classes and attending martial arts classes whenever she can.

She is involved not only in a scholarship-building organization, but also two fundraising clubs and the high school math club, the latter occasionally requires Fernandez to miss school to interact with elementary schoolers. Rainbow Girls, one of two service clubs Fernandez is a member of, has become a priority.

“I decided to devote myself more to [Rainbow Girls] because I feel like that it’s helping me more for the future,” she said. On top of that, she is also involved in ballet, and tries to get to mixed martial arts (MMA) classes when she can.

Though she is no longer dedicated to MMA, Fernandez describes the program as something she has grown up with.

“I’ve had a family there,” she said, mentioning that she still goes to classes occasionally. Ballet, however, has become a passion.

“I enjoy ballet, so it’s something that I’m putting myself more trying to put myself more into,” explained Fernandez. She takes ballet classes three days a week, with an occasional fourth day when an instructor from California is teaching.

Through it all, Fernandez has managed to remain focused and determined, eager to learn and prepare for life beyond high school.