Alisha Ma graduated from Sentinel in 2020; she’s just graduated from the London School of Economics with a Bachelor’s degree in politics and history. She will be attending either Oxford or Cambridge for a Masters in history starting this fall, and hopes to work towards a PhD in History in the future. A woman of colour in the white-male-dominated academic sphere, she believes in doing what she loves and pursuing her dreams. This ex-Spartan is on a roll– read on for her advice on course selection, time management, and more!
Alisha’s experience studying in the UK has exposed her to a more comprehensive understanding of how high school works there. Comparatively, she says there are many more limitations to learning in the UK than in Canada; she feels lucky to have had the opportunity to take a wide array of subjects at Sentinel and advises Sentinel students not to take this for granted. While she believes that Spartans should take the opportunity to explore different subject areas, she also reminds students to know their limits. Knowing our strengths and weaknesses is very important, and Alisha believes that if you try to reach for everything without being strategic, you will end up not standing out in anything. Instead, she suggests that students find ways to highlight their strengths academically. This is a process she’s experienced firsthand; when she first started at Sentinel in grade 11 after moving here from Ottawa, Alisha thought she would end up studying neuroscience. A few weeks in, she quickly realized STEM wasn’t her cup of tea, and she felt supported to transfer into classes that she liked better; she found this openness to be helpful. Looking back on her time at Sentinel, Alisha says she’s grateful for the support from teachers who cared about her goals.
Alisha manages her time by planning things out in advance and by chunking her tasks. She points out that we often procrastinate to avoid starting our work.. She advises students to break a given task into smaller chunks; giving the example of an essay, she explains that you should push yourself to write only an introduction instead of an entire essay, which makes the entire task a lot less intimidating. Setting small goals is how Alisha tackles large assignments on schedule, and is definitely a strategy that Sentinel students can try out!
When asked to offer a “life tip” to Spartans, Alisha says it’s better to be overconfident than underconfident. Of course, there are caveats– she’s not advocating for being arrogant or narcissistic! However, Alisha explains that you often can’t wait for other people to have faith in you; at the end of the day, self-confidence and motivation may be the only thing that can get you moving. Ultimately, Alisha believes that it’s better to go too far out of your comfort zone– even if you fail –than never giving it a try in the first place.
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