Along with other high school seniors this year, Natalija Clarke is mentally preparing to attend college. However, there is a slight twist to this ERHS student’s story: she is the first in her immediate family to attend college in the United States, after emigrating to the US from Guyana when she was 11.

“It’s both difficult and nice at the same time,” Clarke said, who has taken dance since she was 5, and played clarinet since the 7th grade.

“Sometimes, my parents don’t understand what I’m going through,” Clarke explained, “and I’m under a lot of pressure.”

But despite the hardships, she maintains a positive outlook. “It’s nice in the sense that I have a better education than my parents. I learn more.” She added, “They give me the freedom to study on my own, which motivates me to be this person that they can be proud of. And that is my goal for them, I hate failing people and I always want them to be proud of me.”

Clarke grew up in Guyana’s capital, Georgetown, and left her hometown at the age of 11 to move to Florida with her parents.

“I was very reserved,” Clarke said, describing herself when she first moved to the states. “[It was an] important time in my life. I was just a preteen.”

However, Clarke’s timidity was not the only hardship she faced when she moved to the US.

“I was way advanced, but when I came here, I was put into a grade lower. I wasn’t ready and it upset me. I fell back on my work and the influence I was getting was not right,” Clarke said.

Yet, according to Clarke, her parents have helped her to stay on track with her education. “I also learn from my mom. She was upset when my grades started dropping, so she was telling me that I had to learn things differently.”

Learning was not the only area in which she struggled, however. Her accent, which she still struggles with today, also serves as a huge obstacle. “It’s difficult with my accent. My accent I thought was a struggle,” Clarke said.

“Guyana was colonized by the British,” Clarke explained of her home country, where English is the official language. “I  spelled words and said words differently. And people thought it was wrong, they just said it was wrong,” she emphasized.

“People wouldn’t understand me and also people thought I was the alien, like a different person,” Clarke said.  She added, “people would shut me down.”

As a result, Clarke explained that at first, she attempted to completely change her accent. “I think that is how I grew; I learned to change my accent completely and conformed to the American slang,” Clarke said.

Once she entered high school however, Clarke said that she “realized that it was okay to be different and to embrace who you are because everyone wants to be different, if you haven’t noticed.”

As for attending college this fall, Clarke has already started preparing by taking Advanced Placement (AP) courses, such as AP Biology, AP French, and AP Psychology in her senior year, and AP Chemistry and  AP World in her junior year.

“That’s preparing me for college, because I would not have to put my parents in expense, so I’m getting college credits now so when I go to college I can just do the stuff that is important,” she explained.

Like most other college-bound American high school students, Clarke prepared for the SAT and ACT tests, including taking SAT prep with Mr. Miller, SAT and ACT summer courses, and studying and taking preparation classes on the weekends. “I took the SAT and ACT and I’m pretty impressed with my score,” Clarke said. “I really prepared myself for the SAT because I knew it was really important for the college.”

So far, Clarke has applied for four scholarships. While she has not visited any college campuses in person, she has taken virtual tours online, and plans on visiting University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), University of Maryland (UMD), and Towson with her parents.  “[My parents] are helping me choose and they want me to stay in state, which is a big part of choosing.” She added, “Like, a great part.”

Clarke also said that ERHS is helping her to prepare for college.  “In a way, I keep telling people that Roose is not easy,” Clarke explained. “I haven’t been to another high school, but from my friends telling me about their schools, I feel as though it is better. [ERHS] is a vigorous school, with the courses and all the AP programs and 8 classes a day. The only thing I won’t be prepared for is the hours of classes.”

“I will study hard, stay [focused] and really put everything that I have learned in high school to college,” Clarke said. “I will try to enforce the same disciplines.”