Seonmin Will Heo

If I were giving a new student a tour of NMH, I would first bring him to the Rhodes Arts Center (RAC). It’s the best place here, and it gives a view of the most active part of campus. My favorite thing is to go to the RAC and play the piano and violin. My mother ran a music academy when I was a child, so I have a strong affection for music. And the RAC is the perfect place to know, learn, and love music.

Teachers here are willing to talk with students about how they’re doing in class, and they use their free time to give extra help. They help in other ways, too. At the end of last school year, I lost my passport at JFK airport in New York. I called my NMH music teacher, Steve Bathory-Peeler, because I had stayed at his house once before. He told me without hesitation to come back to his house, where he let me stay until I got a visiting pass. Without his help, I would have been in real trouble.

NMH is preparing me for college, but it doesn’t stop there. It’s preparing me for the world that awaits me after college. Class might be difficult, homework might be too much, sports practice might be tough. I used to panic when all those things happened at the same time. Now I’ve learned to spend my time more effectively. I use time between D-block and sports practice to finish some of my homework. I govern my time carefully during study hall. In 15 minutes I can finish work that used to take me more than an hour. I’ve become a stronger, more organized, more responsible person.

For me, NMH is an ideal place to live. It’s allowed me to fully express and discover myself. One of the colleges I am applying to next year is Amherst College, mostly because I like the NMH-like atmosphere of the campus.