A Day in the Life

Written by Lion Life student editor, Serena Mair

With college application season rapidly approaching, Sagemont Prep zooms in on passionate juniors and their educational growth in the path of their intended majors and careers. Thomas Balding, a STEM-driven 11th grader in the class of 2024, has utilized the Sagemont curriculum to best guide him in the fields of astrophysics, calculus, and quantum mechanics.

The rewarding abstracts of the Upper School curriculum have lined students like Thomas to explore all their passions without limits. For instance, this year in AP Biology, he gained the opportunity to dive deeper into the complexities of life sciences and their interactions with one of his favored mediums, the field of mathematics. Currently, one of his key accomplishments is the design of the Antimatter Engine. Described to be a proton-fueled nuclear reaction that uses the decay of microscopic black holes to generate matter and antimatter in binary sets of particles, the creativity and flexibility of a project-based course, such as College Algebra, allowed him to dive deeper into topics of interest and its potential effect on the global scale.

To further his studies prior to his senior year, Thomas is currently taking Calculus with Applied Physics through a dual enrollment program and anticipates the pre-college summer experience at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University. Tying most of his key interests and knowledge together, we are elated to acknowledge Thomas’ acceptance and decision to complete an internship with NASA in the next few weeks. Working and contributing to the heliophysics department, our lion will be studying and measuring solar flare occurrences and electromagnetic activity to more accurately predict the cycles of the sun.

Reflecting on his past few years at Sagemont, many of the opportunities presented to him now would not otherwise be available without the support and guidance of key faculty and teachers on our campus. Being a two time recipient of the Sagemont Academic Pillar Award, through the mathematics department nomination, Thomas shared the significant contributions this recognition has made in aid of his self reflection and ability for community building. The small, family community built here at Sagemont has helped foster his dreams of entering the STEM field with dreams of gaining qualifications to be a spaceship pilot or possibly a flight mechanic for spaceships and eventually go discover the limitless, in space.