Fenley S.
About Me
I am a 17-year-old junior at Stanford OHS. My favorite subjects are Philosophy, History, and English, and I also love learning languages, including Mandarin and Latin, and in programming, Java and Python.
I am also a teen-preneur. I launched an artisan soap business at age seven and have since been part of dozens of children's business fairs and won multiple business, sales, and marketing awards. As I got older, I took entrepreneurship classes, and learned about developing business plans and investing. My experiences as a kid-preneur and questions about being a successful leader as part of a generation navigating unprecedented global challenges inspired my first book, which was published by Random House in 2024.
Apart from nonfiction, I also love to explore the styles and approaches of other types of writing - philosophical, historical, analytical, scientific, and creative, among others; I am currently writing the first book in a high fantasy trilogy. I have studied creative writing at the Kenyon Young Writers Workshop, Stanford Summer Institutes, Yale Young Writers Workshop and Ellipsis Writing, among others, and my work has been recognized by the Scholastic Arts & Writing Awards with a Gold Key award and by Writopia Lab's Youth Essay Writing Conference.
I am especially interested in ethics, whether that takes the form of deep study or friendly debates about current events. I am passionate about social justice issues in the modern world, and actively work to do my part - from learning to be a better ally to volunteering at a local animal rescue and playing chess with senior citizens.
In my free time I love reading, rock climbing, traveling, and competing in Pokémon card tournaments.
Why I Chose Stanford OHS
I first chose to apply to Stanford OHS due to its academic rigor, but it quickly became so much more. Beyond the four factors I mentioned in the above answer, it offered an array of convenience factors possible through the combination of its online nature and structure resembling college classes. I do intend to graduate from Stanford OHS. It has allowed me to develop academically, in addition to simply teaching every subject in a rigorous and distinctive manner, by putting so much attention into teaching critical thinking and argumentation, particularly through the core curriculum. Courses like The History and Philosophy of Science and Democracy, Freedom, Justice, and the Law should be required in every school, and I draw upon their material on a weekly or even daily basis, in a shockingly diverse array of circumstances. My writing has dramatically improved through the English and History courses at Stanford OHS, and the science and math courses, while less of my interest, are also excellent. All of these things have helped me develop as a writer, thinker, and scholar.
As a writer who recently traveled widely during a debut book tour last Spring, Stanford OHS has allowed me the freedom to travel in a way that no other school could, and that alone has been a remarkable benefit. In general, the ability to design your schedule has allowed me to take advantage of many extracurriculars and opportunities which I might otherwise have missed. Beyond time management and freedom of movement, Stanford OHS has also helped me pursue special interests simply in the sense that many of my Stanford OHS classes are in fact interests of mine, particularly philosophy, which I am considering majoring in during college.
What I Love About Stanford OHS
The four crucial aspects of Stanford OHS that are among the top reasons I love the school are its professors, class style, student body, and core curriculum. The professors at Stanford OHS are frankly extraordinary, and my enjoyment of the classes is as much due to the people teaching them as the content themselves. I have yet to have a poor experience with a professor, and they continually not only amaze me with their expertise, but also keep classes engaging even for subjects that I do not count among my favorites.
The class style is another part of Stanford OHS that is unique and wonderful, namely in how it mimics and perhaps even surpasses that of colleges. The discussion based and Socratic seminar style classes, in addition to allowing for lively participation and incredible discussions, are a safe yet delightfully rigorous space to explore new ideas. This is only aided by the small class sizes, which leads into the third area in which I consider Stanford OHS uniquely wonderful, namely its student body.
The student body at Stanford OHS is overwhelmingly supportive, kind, intelligent, and full of like-minded peers, and OHS would not be the same if not for its spectacular community. In addition to those qualities, Stanford OHS students are simply delightfully unique and interesting people, and it creates such a lively community in which intellectual discourse thrives.
Finally, the core curriculum is one of my favorite parts of Stanford OHS. I had not taken a philosophy course prior to starting at Stanford OHS, but it instantly became my favorite subject, and the idea that most high schools do not even offer it is frankly unimaginable to me. Core consistently has the most interesting classes and the best professors, and its content teaches critical thinking and logical argumentation in a way that every student needs, and so many other schools fail to provide. It is a fundamental part of my education, and I cannot imagine where I would be without it.