Anisa Iqbal ’15
Currently Attending: Yale University
Years at Shipley: 13

Activities, Positions, Awards: Crew, Squash, Sprouts, Shipley Singers, Glee Club, Yearbook, Publications Photography; Executive Council Representative; Esther Forbes Russell Award, June Avery Snyder Prize, Margaret Williams Mathematics Prize, Penelope Julliard '56 Double Language Award

Home Sweet Home
The only way I can describe Shipley is as my home away from home. It has become so familiar to me that I could probably walk around the entire building with my eyes closed.

So Many Choices
The thing that stands out to me most about Shipley is the range of activities you can pursue here; I always enjoyed having a wide range of things to do, and Shipley just let me love more things. There were many clubs in Lower School and there were even more in Upper School. I remember seeing a Sprouts [horticultural club] demo in Middle School and being completely sure I wanted to be a part of the group as soon as I could.

Learning to Work Hard
The workload in Upper School was definitely heavy with my selection of classes, but it prepared me for college in that it was demanding enough to force me to be efficient and hardworking.

A Strong Moral Compass
Something that Shipley gave me is a strong moral compass. From my first day we were taught to be kind, honest, and courageous.

Intellectual Risks Encouraged
In most of my English classes we are often given essays to write without a specific prompt. It makes it very difficult to come up with a thesis, but it also allows us to come up with an argument that nobody else has, and I think it’s a very good thing that we are encouraged to find unique things to say. I have experienced the same thing in my photography class. For one Photoshop project we were told that we needed to use photographs of the interior of a building and its floor plans, and I was actually astonished at what I had when I was finished. When I was starting, though, it was impossible to imagine what I wanted to create; I had to just take a risk and do something.

Latin for Success
Mr. Rich was my most influential teacher in Upper School. He taught me when I was a freshman, sophomore, and senior. I dropped Latin junior year so I could take American Studies, and I couldn’t help but come back to it senior year. He made Latin my most fun class. Each one was filled with personal anecdotes, wonderful similes, and lots of scholarly work. His classes were very well designed to help us make the most of our time at Shipley. The beginning of freshman year was spent nailing down the grammar of the language, so that when we moved on to literature we were fully equipped to read it. The way Mr. Rich ran class was also incredible. His teaching methods are hard to describe, but they usually include letting the student attempt translation on her own, and then asking questions to lead her to understanding if she got stuck. He was also really good at believing in your abilities and having faith in you; I was nervous about coming back to Latin after a year off, but Mr. Rich was sure I would be able to pick it back up easily, and he was right.

Most Memorable Experience
It is hard to pick just one experience when I have had so many amazing ones, but a moment that stands out is was this spring at the InterAc Concert. We walked up onstage, found our places, and placed our folders at our feet. A surprised “ooh” came to us from the crowd. The other schools loved our songs. At the end of our difficult classical piece, we transitioned into Hozier’s “Take Me to Church” and dropped our folders flat on the stage, and the audience laughed and cheered. The warm glow from that applause was a great feeling.

Plans for Fall 2015
I will be joining the freshman class of Yale University. I’ll be on the rowing team, as I was recruited for coxing, and hopefully joining an a capella group. I do not know what I want to study yet, but at Yale I do not have to choose my major until the end of sophomore year. I’ll be able to take a large variety of classes so that I can figure out what I’m most interested in.

Future Ambition
I want to do so many things in the future that I do not even know where to start! I might want to be an archaeologist, putting my Latin to good use and satisfying my curiosity about the ancient civilizations that we learned about in fifth grade. Or maybe a paleontologist; the books and shows I watched as a child sparked my interest in dinosaurs. Or I could follow my dad and brother and study engineering, but it could be something very different from aerospace, like biomedical. However, I do find space very interesting. If I didn’t get motion sickness so easily, I would think about becoming an astronaut! I also really want to be a National Geographic photographer. After reading the magazine for as long as I can remember and being captivated by the images, I would love to travel the world and capture amazing pictures, too.