After a short winter hiatus, Trinity Prep is back in session—this time with three new students.
6th grader Shraddha Bhatia, 8th grader Nicholas Bergman and 9th grader Valentyna Willard hit a running start as they take on the challenging transition of starting a new school in the middle of the year.
Shraddha Bhatia
Coming from Stonewall Jackson Middle School, Shraddha Bhatia is thrilled to start her first year and is already thinking about being involved in many extracurricular activities and clubs. She plans on joining the Science Olympiad and Forensics teams when she enters high school.
Her brother, senior Varun Bhatia is enjoying his fourth year on the Forensics team. Shraddha has already been on a couple of travel tournaments with the team as an observer prior to her enrollment in the school. She has attended the Glenbrooks Invitational in Chicago for two years now and has been eager to contribute to the team ever since.
When Bhatia was at her previous school, she entered and won her class speech contest, which gave her more encouragement to pursue Speech and Debate.
“I decided to come to Trinity, because everyone supports and helps each other,” Bhatia said. “[There] is a better sense of community over here.”
When it comes to academics, Bhatia enjoys English and reading for fun.
“The workload is similar, but it is more distributed [at] this school,” Bhatia said.
What most people don’t know about Bhatia is that she possesses a talent in Indian classical dancing and avidly engages in this activity outside of school.
Nicholas Bergman
The son of Trinity math teacher Shannon Bergman has moxie. Nicholas Bergman definitely isn’t one to back down from a challenge. His self-determination is apparent in his personal philosophy, “Get ahead at any cost.”
“I decided to come to Trinity for a better learning environment,” Bergman said. “Trinity is more difficult than my previous school but not unmanageable.”
Bergman hopes to take advantage of the school’s various extracurricular programs and the motivated teachers. He wants to participate in band, chess and possibly even the school newspaper. However, he says it’ll take time before he gets completely adjusted to the new environment.
“The largest difference between Trinity and my last school is that Trinity has friendlier teachers,” Bergman said. “[Also], at my old school we didn’t have laptops that we brought from class to class.”
One of his most important accomplishments so far is graduating from Beta Club, an exclusive academic club at his old school for exceptional middle school students. Whatever the case, Bergman is ecstatic to participate in school-related events and integrate himself into Saint culture.
Valentyna Willard
Valentyna Willard has much to contribute to Trinity’s plethora of accomplished students. First of all, she is proud of her Ukrainian heritage. One of her proudest moments was her involvement in the Ukrainian revolution of 2014. That revolution ousted elected president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych.
“My parents and I lived in the heart of Kyiv, a few minutes from where all main events of the revolution happened,” Willard said. “I not only witnessed historical events of the country, but I had opportunity to participate. It’s unforgettable.”
Willard moved to Orlando when her parents opened a new office for their business. However, her relocation is a great boost for Trinity’s scholarly community.
Willard is an exceptional academic, hoping to study chemistry and biology in the future, as well as the visual arts. She is trilingual with her first language being Ukrainian. Willard also knows English and German but says the language barrier makes doing homework in her classes a little more difficult.
“I used to have classes in my native language [in Ukraine],” Willard said. “Now every class for me is also an English language class, and you can imagine that it takes twice the amount of time to do the homework in a foreign language.”
So far, she is enjoying the integration of technology and the tranquil environment at Trinity, alongside the feel of the campus.
“I love it!” Willard said. “[Trinity is] really great to have opportunity to choose subjects for deeper studying.”
