Jisu Stanfield

Prior to college, I danced in a pre-professional ballet company. Ballet is something that takes a lot of time, so, my life consisted of strictly ballet and school beginning at age twelve - when I started ballet. I did not have time to hang out with friends outside of school and ballet; all my extra time was used to finish homework. Because I started so late, I spent years trying to catch up to my peers. I worked hard to be promoted in the company; going from pre-apprentice to apprentice and finally skipping two levels my Freshman year, when I became a senior apprentice.

Throughout high school my world revolved around ballet. While I tried to allocate enough time for schoolwork and ballet preparation, I often failed to do so. Rehearsals ran into study time, I chose sleep over completed homework assignments, and my focus was caught between the two. I still had standards for myself so I made sure to keep a and b honor roll but school wasn’t my top priority, and I knew I could be doing better without ballet. Nevertheless, I had a dream and I understood that dreams took sacrifices. I refused to quit ballet when I had just 2 years left, so I continued sacrificing my grades for an uncertain pipe dream.

That dream finally did pay off, as I was awarded the role of Snow Queen in the Nutcracker, but during this time I was also applying to colleges. After the Quest Bridge scholarship did not work out, (if I’m honest my essays for that application were quite bad) my goal was the University of Georgia. My sister graduated from UGA in 2022 and she loved it. She would come home during breaks and tell me about how different it was from high school. It was massive enough that no one really cared about your business, but there were enough clubs for everyone to find their group of people. With that in mind, I applied to UGA and, thankfully (especially after what I pulled in high school), got in.

As I finish my first semester here, I’m so grateful for the opportunity I’ve been given to fulfill my academic potential. Getting to focus my efforts completely on school without any strict obligations has made me so much happier. I no longer dance, but ballet will always be a special art to me.