Spartan Senior Emma Lubinger was recently awarded a full ride to the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. We sat down to discuss her honor during a free moment in class.

“It’s called the Presidential scholarship… it offers full tuition, which is normally around $44,000 a year, so I just don’t have to pay it, it ends up being almost $200,000 over four years. It’s a huge honor to even be considered for it, let alone win it. I didn’t even apply for it, I didn’t even submit a portfolio, I didn’t know if they’d seen my art before, but my art teacher Ms. Shokrai, and Kibby recommended me for it, and I was chosen, so here we are.”

This was one of many plot twists in Emma’s college decision process, and hopefully the resolution. She had registered for Community College and gotten into classes there when the California College of the Arts gave her a merit scholarship offer of $17,000 a year. From there, the pressure increased.

“We had five days to decide if I was going or not, but even with the 17 it was still a ridiculous amount, private schools are damn expensive… It was a whirlwind. After that, I was trying to get the FAFSA because I hadn’t applied and it was past the deadline, a whole disaster.”

“The five days came and went, and then ‘Kibby was like, hey, about this thing…’ There’s a lot of stuff I’m not entirely sure about, but I do know that I’m enrolled in classes at AAU. Screenwriting classes. What’s really cool about this college is that the General Ed classes are all Liberal Arts… No math. And they space it out over four years. So I get to the fun stuff straight out of high school.”

“So after you complete your degree…” I prompted, knowing how much we all hate this question.

“My plan is to bop around to other colleges… I really want to go to Humboldt State and start studying environmental science and wilderness first responder classes, I want to be a student for as long as I can. I want to stay in school, which sounds weird, but I just want to learn as much as I can.

Career wise, I don’t know. I want to publish a book, write movies, but I want to get a teaching degree if I can, maybe teach elementary school for a few years just for the experience.”

Emma’s advice for anyone still ‘figuring it out’? “Don’t stress out. It sounds stupid and cliche, but honestly, your gonna be fine. It’s hella stressful and it seems really scary what we’re about to go into, but we’re all gonna be fine. We’re gonna make it, and it’s gonna be hella fun.”