“Everything happens for a reason.”
OUTGOING | COMPASSIONATE | HARDWORKING | DETERMINED
My Story:
Making people smile and helping others are my most important goals in life.
What advice would you give underclassmen?:
Never give up, and to always work as hard as they can.
Instagram: Arianna.winchell
My Story:
As many of us do we get comfortable in the life that we are living. Sophomore year that changed for me as I had to move schools due to challenges with my old one. Although it had its fair share of difficulties it was the best thing that had ever happened to me. I was able to get out of my bubble and meet so many new people. Now I am a senior who is about to graduate and move on to bigger things! I am going to Bethel University in Indiana to double major in mathematics and economics. I would not be able to do this without all the challenges I have faced in my life. During a very difficult time I was able to have a photo shoot with Pat and Cassie and they were able to make me laugh, feel beautiful, and love who I am.
Favorite part of working with Pat+Cassie:
They were so kind and funny and wanted me to have fun and to feel beautiful
Instagram: emgirl_
“you can do all things through christ who strengthens you -philippians 4:13”
DETERMINED | ENERGETIC | LOYAS | INDEPENDENT
My Story:
I am Savana Asche, and I am determined. Since a going age I had always been told “You can’t do that”, “Shes not going to make it” and “She won’t make it far”. These are the things that have made me to who I am today. It doesn’t matter what these people were talking about, all that matter was that I would be able to prove them wrong. It started out with sports. I became a gymnast and I slowly became one of the best at my age level. I would consistently bring home 1st place trophies, and State Champion medals. Then I would become a track runner and then eventually become one of the top runners at my school. And finally, cheerleading. I was told by someone who inspired me as a kid that I wouldn’t make it, and that I wasn’t good enough. This made me work the hardest I have ever worked. I put in countless hours at the gym, and when I would come home I would train on my own trampoline again. And now I can proudly say that I was on CPHS Varsity Cheer from freshman to junior year, and a Senior Level 6 International all star team my senior year. I guess what I’m trying to say here is just take those little remarks you hear people say about you and just tuck them away and prove them wrong silently.
Favorite part of working with PAT+CASSIE:
I loved being able to be pat and cassies intern and learning a little bit more about what goes on behind the scenes.
What advice would you give underclassmen?:
Don’t be scared of seniors. We are probably the coolest kids at the high school and we just want to make everyone welcome. :)
Instagram: savanajae
KIND | UNDERSTANDING | EASYGOING
My Story:
There are so many things in life and about myself that I’m not sure about yet, but one thing I know for sure about myself is that I love to help others. No matter if that’s helping my teammates at dance, tutoring during resource period at school, or setting up a donor drive to help cancer patients. Helping others has always been something I have had a true passion for. I plan to carrying this passion with me wherever life may take me, and even into my future career. I am a strong believer that it’s not about what life throws at you, but rather how you react it. I try to find the good in everything, and find peace with the things I cannot control. One thing I am proud of about myself is how hard of a worker I am. Throughout high school I worked hard to maintain above a 4.3 gpa, and ended up graduating (hopefully we have a graduation) at the top of my class. While doing this I also worked hard in student council and dance, where I was recently awarded MVP of my team.
Favorite part of working with PAT+CASSIE:
How nice and open minded they both are! They never judge a client and treat everyone with respect, all while creating a fun and cool environment!
What advice would you give underclassmen?:
Live every moment to the fullest, and spend time with the people you care about!
Instagram: Jane.georgas
“Every true strength is gained through struggle.”
TRUSTWORTHY | OPTIMISTIC | HUNBLE | PERCEPTIVE | BIG-HEARTED
My Story:
Ever since I was a little girl my mom has taught me some of the most important lessons that continue to challenge me, strengthen me, and teach me today. I have been taught that everyone has good in them and sometimes it’s hard to find it but it’s there, you sometimes just need to keep looking. Everyone is unique in their own way and the greatest gift you can give to someone is to accept them for who they are. I have friends that see the world differently than me but they are the ones who offer me insight that I would otherwise never have considered. Life is going to give me many surprises, these might be the ones I welcome with open arms and ones I wish never occurred. But those are the ones that will build my character and make me stronger. I’ve learned to believe in myself because that will be the reason I will achieve some of the greatest things life has to offer. When my journey on Earth ends, I don’t want to say I have any regrets. I may have disappointments and things I wish I could change but ultimately I will know that those disappointments helped shape me into a strong woman that I can be proud of. I want to be able to look back at the beautiful mark I left, knowing I made the world a little better for myself and for others.
Instagram: meg_ciokajlo
“Be the reason someone smiles today.”
CREATIVE | OUTGOING | HUMBLE | MOTIVATED
My Story:
My name is Morgan Sianta and my life is like a movie. I was raised in Batavia, Illinois by my parents Jim Sianta and Jennifer McQuen. I have a dream to make a difference in the world. I am a big environmentalist and I believe with the help of everyone we can change the world. I have been working so hard in the greenhouse at my school to turn it into a safe place for special needs students and students with anxiety. We have completely remodeled the whole greenhouse from a storage unit with a few plants to a full functioning greenhouse. The vegetables and fruits that grow in the greenhouse are being used to donate to food pantries. We have also had the special needs kids come in and put their handprints on the structures to show they are truly loved in our community and they are not overlooked. There has been so much research on planting therapy, and has so many benefits. This year has changed who I am as a person and helped me discover who I really am.
Favorite part of working with PAT+CASSIE:
I loved meeting new people and building up self confidence.
What advice would you give underclassmen?:
Never let anyone tell you you’re not good enough.
Instagram: Morgan.sianta
CREATIVE | PASSIONATE | ADVENTUROUS | FUN
My Story:
My name is Ava Dzurovcik and I will soon be graduated from Crown Point High School. I will be attending the University of Louisville in the fall and I plan to be a member of the Ladybirds Dance Team if all goes well. These past four years have been absolutely crazy. Now that they are almost over, I sometimes wish that they weren’t. Many things have happened in this period of time that have really shaped me into who I am.
When I was about nine years old, my mother got into a huge car accident causing her to have many surgeries and leaving some parts of her body numb to this day. As a result of this, she could no longer work as a flight attendant which is what she loved! She knew she wanted to do something with her life that benefited our whole family. Later, in 2017, we started a whole new chapter of our lives and we opened a dance studio. Pretty crazy, I know. My mom knows how much I love to dance and she wanted to make a place that felt like home for me to dance all the time. My mom and stepdad are completely involved as my stepdad teaches and my mom runs all business aspects. I first started teaching at the studio when I was 15 without a clue of what I should be doing. I ended up shadowing teachers and becoming way more knowledgeable about dance technique and the correct ways to teach.
Fast forward to now, I teach about nine classes a week, along with choreographing 11 competition routines for our team. These past three years I have become a role model for all of the young kids I teach. I have grown to love these kids with all my heart and I feel almost like a big sister because of how close we all are. I love to teach and to choreograph and I am so thankful for my parents for creating this business and this space for me to do it. Although I am very young to be doing this, I work hard and it shows. My competition routines have placed first overall at many regional and national competitions over the past 2 years. It’s seriously the best feeling when you work so hard for something and it actually pays off. This is my passion and I hope to continue it as I get older and wiser in the dance world. Even when times are kind of tough or I’m at a roadblock, my Dad instills my faith and reminds me that God always has a plan for me. Dance is a huge part of who I am and I am so grateful that I get to share it with the people I love most everyday. I hope to make an impact by showing that you can accomplish many things you put your mind to, no matter how old or young you are. If you want it, you can really do it.
Favorite part of working with PAT+CASSIE:
My favorite part about working with Pat & Cassie is always getting ready for dances. It is the best place to start your dance days by getting your hair and makeup done (which always looks amazing) and then taking such fun pictures. It is such an exciting environment seeing all of the girls dresses and how beautiful everyone looks. My last dance my date and I even brought our dogs for pictures!
What advice would you give underclassmen?:
The best advice I can give is to always be happy for others successes, even if you wanted that success to be yours. A lot of times, we compete against our friends for the same thing and sometimes we might not always get the outcome we had hoped for. You can work so hard at something for someone else to get what you wanted. That is okay! Maybe it wasn’t meant for you. Keep trying, but don’t have hard feelings against people who have been rewarded. Your time will always come, and it will be great.
Instagram: avadzurovcik
“Live for the moments you can’t put into words”
OUTGOING | PASSIONATE | BIG-HEARTED
My Story:
I’m passionate about traveling the world and seeing things from a different point of view. I plan to continue doing things outside my comfort zone as much as I can. I’m also passionate about helping others and making sure every person feels comfortable in their own skin. In the world, I’m the one who puts others before myself and tries to set a good example in and out of work and school. Each and every day my goal is to have a positive attitude and make people smile a little more than they might have.
What advice would you give underclassmen?:
For all of the underclassmen, please remember to always follow your dreams and never give up. There is so much is life that YOU can accomplish even if you’re scared. Take the risk, you never know what amazing things can come out of it!
Instagram: Kiley_szatkowski
“To learn to succeed, you must first learn to fail.”
ADVENTUROUS | DRIVEN | COMMITTED
My Story:
I am a strong believer that it is the small moments in life that define a person, which is the reason I make it a daily goal to always remain positive even when life gets tough. Positivity has always been an attribute that I take pride in, whether on the volleyball court or in everyday life. I also believe in taking chances and never letting an opportunity slip by. Even when others believe that something is out of your reach, without believing in yourself, you will never know the outcome. I truly believe that, in the end, we only regret the chances we didn't take. In order to succeed, you have to learn to fail. It is how you react to the failure that truly defines you. Personally, I have learned to accept various failures throughout my life, but without those setbacks, I would not be the person that I am today.
One major obstacle that I have overcome is obtaining the "impossible". Throughout my volleyball career, I have always been told that I was not tall enough to play Division 1, let alone in the Big Ten Conference. This only inspired me to train harder and push further in pursuit of my goal. I now play for Indiana University's Volleyball team. The accumulation of these core values ultimately defines the person that I am today and am consistently striving to become.
What advice would you give underclassmen?:
Enjoy the little things and never take any moment for granted!
Instagram: olivia.panepinto
“Don’t be afraid to be great”
BRAVE | STRONG MINDED | CARING
My Story:
Be Okay
Looking back is like taking a ugly glance on who I used to be before my family and I’s life was turned upside down. This diagnosis was one that would change my family dynamic forever in who knows what way. That summer was a good one until June first; then all hell broke loose and left my whole family running around like chickens with their heads cut off. The doctors were talking to my brother and parents when I arrived. I was convinced Jack was just getting blood work done because he was having back issues. Blood cancers and Disorders it said on the wall. “Why is Jack on this floor Aunt Kelly?” “Oh this is just where they take blood for all the patients,” she fired back quickly, walking faster. No one could have prepared me for what happened next. I walked into Jack’s hospital room, seventeenth floor, big windows, the smell of sickness and despair reaking on that floor. My mom was crying and my brother was staring straight; my mom could barely get any words out. It seemed like we had waited minutes for her to finally utter what the doctor had proclaimed. Jack, my big brother, was diagnosed with cancer. Acute lymphoblastic leukemia to be exact. That very moment is the only time in my life I have experienced pure heartbreak. My body felt numb as I dropped to the floor after hearing those words come from my mother’s mouth. Tears flooded my eyes and I took a look at my brother; the look on his face is one I will never forget. He looked as if he was defeated. A single tear fell down his face as I wrapped my arms around him and he cried in my arms. I felt him shake and he whispered in my ear, “I’m gonna be okay, I can do this, I love you”.
At that moment, I felt the ache of possibly losing my brother in the upcoming months and the insane amount of love I felt for him from all the past years. All the little memories from our childhood played over and over in my head as if I was watching a slideshow. I regretted not appreciating him more and not telling him how much he meant to me while we were growing up. But I knew from this moment on, I had to be the best sister I could possibly be. We had always been close, never really fought besides the occasional “Mom, he hit me,” scenario. I knew right then I had to change my attitude and become more responsible. My parents needed to focus on my brother and I needed to be okay on my own at home, while they were in the city with him at the hospital. I was just your average fifteen year old girl, all about boys and going to football games. Then, my life turned into knowing medical terms, going to his surgeries and treatments, learning CPR, so that if I was in charge of watching him at home and something happened, I would be prepared. So much changed in such a small amount of time and there was nothing anyone could do about it. From that moment on, I vowed to be a better person.
This unfortunate event ended up turning out okay, just like Jack said it would. It opened my eyes to the concept of how private life is. You could have known me during that time and had no idea my mind was somewhere else whilst I was in class. That’s why you can’t judge someone, because you have absolutely no idea what is going on at home. Abuse, anxiety, or sickness could be affecting how that person behaves or portrays themselves. Jack struggled with his cancer because it was a very aggressive form. Chemotherapy did not work for him and we all got very worried it was too late for treatment, so the doctors gave my parents two choices. One was a new therapy called Cart T therapy, which has little to no data about it but is known to get cancer patients into remission. Plan number two was to try a different more aggressive form of chemotherapy which would make Jack weaker; the radiation that comes with this type or chemotherapy is very invasive. My parents chose to go with plan number one and start the process of the Cart T therapy. After a long, terrifying, wait with symptoms and fevers, Jack was in remission. He has been for 2 years now. My dreams have shifted from the football games and silly boy crushes, to my big brother becoming an uncle to my kids and a dad to his own when we grow older. I wanted to attend his wedding and watch him fall in love with some country girl.
At one point, I didn’t think I was gonna be lucky enough to see these things. But with this new therapy and the hope and prayers from our support system, Jack is cured from cancer! This event changed me in so many ways. I am more health conscious and my brother and I are closer than we have ever been. I turned from a bratty fifteen year old to a mature fifteen going on twenty-five year old from how much I had endeavored mentally. I wouldn’t trade that for anything. I got through those months by telling myself this: God puts you through things because he knows you can handle them and, in the end, they will teach you a lesson. So if you’re going through anything, or maybe everything, just know you were put in that situation because God knew you could handle it and, in the end, it might make you a better person. If your family member or friend is being affected by cancer or any illness, just know that you’re not alone and you have my prayers.
Favorite part of working with PAT+CASSIE:
the San Diego trip!!
What advice would you give underclassmen?":
Have fun time flies
Instagram: Samanthaquinlanm
