Age: 18
School: Columbus North High School
Who are your parents/guardians, grandparents and siblings?
Parents: Jeff and April Niebrugge; grandparents: Phil and Kathy Niebrugge, Alan and Rose Myers; sibling: Ashley Niebrugge
Which elementary and middle school did you attend?
Southside elementary and Central Middle School
What’s your favorite class or part of the school day and why?
Biomedical Innovations is my favorite part of the day because it pushes me to think outside the box, to come up with a new innovation to present to the next panel of judges.
In which extracurricular activities do you participate?
Columbus North High School women’s swimming, Health Occupation Students of America, National History Day, National Honor Society
When you’re not in school, what’s your favorite place to be and why?
When I’m not in school, you can almost always find me in the pool. It is one of my favorite places to de-stress and let everything go, while swimming fast and bettering myself as an athlete.
What has been your greatest high school memory so far and why?
My greatest high school memory so far has to be the women’s swimming sectionals my freshman year. We had an amazing team and we swam hard and swam fast. I remember all the coaches jumping in the water with us to hold the first-place trophy and celebrate the hard work that had led us to our success.
What are you looking forward to after graduation?
After graduation, I am most excited to pursue my college education in biomedical engineering and pre-med at Purdue University.
Who in your life has inspired you or whom do you look up to and why?
Some of my biggest role models are my parents, Jeff and April Niebrugge, and my coaches, Jim Sheridan and Logan Schaefer. These four people push me to be the best I can possibly be, day in and day out. I look up to their success as people and aspire to achieve similar accomplishments in life.
What is the most important thing you’ve learned during, or from, high school?
One of the most important things that I have learned from high school is that you cannot control everything. Life will flow and change, and that is OK. You have to learn to be an adaptable person who is willing to take on anything life throws your way.
