What a Ride for Kianna Freitag
It's a hectic time for Huntington High School senior Kianna Freitag. Between racing to finish and file college applications and working hard to maintain high honor roll status to playing a key role on the Blue Devil field hockey team, the teenager has had her hands full.
"I'd always looked forward to being in high school when I was a child," Ms. Freitag said. "I thought the day would never come and now I'm months away from graduating! It really went so quickly! As a freshman, I remember that some of the seniors told me that would happen and I didn't believe them. But, it really goes by quickly! It's scary!"
The senior is a friendly, studious, athletic and well-liked teenager. She has built a solid academic record and teachers have been impressed with the quality of her work.
Over the past four years, Ms. Freitag has consistently earned a spot on either the honor roll or high honor roll. This year she's enrolled in AP Government and AP Literature, among other challenging courses. "My first quarter weighted average was just above 100, which was my highest high school GPA," she said. "I was very surprised and proud of myself."
The senior has always enjoyed science "and last year I strongly considered majoring in forensics," she said. "I wanted to intern here on Long Island, but it didn't work out. I got scared to commit to one major so early, so I'm going into college undecided. I applied to 17 schools. I've heard back from eight so far."
While growing up, Ms. Freitag said she "would tell my parents that I'm going to school in California, no matter what. I was so set on it, even as a freshman, but that has changed. I couldn't wait to be on my own and I've always seen myself there, but realistically, now I wouldn't be able to be that far from home. I haven't even applied to one school there."
The past four years have contained many highlights for Ms. Freitag, including a trip to Washington, DC with other Huntington High School fashion program students at the invitation of First Lady Michelle Obama.
The group attended an inaugural gown donation ceremony at the Smithsonian Museum. Ms. Freitag personally met Mrs. Obama, gown designer Jason Wu and fashion designer Tory Burch. "I toured the Smithsonian and was an arms length away from the gown before it was put behind glass," the senior said.
Ms. Freitag's favorite high school memories are from her freshman year. "I loved meeting the upperclassman and having a very different change of pace and environment, including making new friends," she said.
Varsity Field Hockey
The teenager made the varsity field hockey team as a freshman and has been a star in the sport. "I was so surprised because I learned how to play just the prior year," she said. "My best friend had taught me. She wanted me to play with her instead of playing soccer. Who knew I would pick it up so quickly? Now I love it and it's my main sport. I no longer play soccer."
Ms. Freitag really enjoyed being on the varsity squad. She co-captained the team last fall with Sarah Casey. As a junior, she earned All-Division I honors and this past season was named All-Division I, All-Conference and All-County honorable mention.
"I'm definitely going to miss the pre-season next August, as much as I always hated it," the senior joked. "I'm not playing college field hockey, although I can see myself playing club or intramural because I'm going to miss it."
The teenager was on the Blue Devil spring track team as a freshman after having competed in the sport at J. Taylor Finley Middle School. "It was a cool experience," she said. "The meets were much bigger and much longer. I had fun competing against a greater number of people and schools." She participated in the 400m, the 4x1 relay team and the long jump.
College Acceptances
Ms. Freitag has been accepted into the University at Albany, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, SUNY Cortland, James Madison University and George Mason University.
She's been deferred at Fordham University, Northeastern University and Binghamton University. Always the optimist, Ms. Freitag notes "I haven't been denied yet! So that's good! I've been working hard to keep up my second quarter GPA since the schools that deferred me, plus the ones I haven't heard back from yet, will be using those grades as part of their decision."
She doesn't have a "Number 1" school yet. "I'm not sure where I want to go or what I want to do career wise later in life, which is why I applied to so many," Ms. Freitag said. "I want a medium to large school that is prestigious, but also fun. I stayed along the east coast though as far down as Florida and as far north as schools in Albany and Boston."
The teenager said she applied to many "super reaches" such as Duke and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, but said she "won't be upset it I get denied." She also applied to what she calls "reaches," such as Boston University, Northeastern the University of Maryland and the University of Virginia. She's already been accepted into some of her "safety" schools.
Will Miss Friends
"As much as I'm ready, excited and looking forward to moving on with my life and going off to college this fall, I will miss the friends that I have now and the way things are," Ms. Freitag said. "This is like the end of a part of my life. It's going to be a difficult change. I have many tough decisions to make within the next couple of months, like greatly narrowing down my college list, and choosing one!"
Huntington alum Peter Delfino has been Ms. Freitag's best friend and boyfriend. She said he "has always been there for me throughout all my obstacles and problems in high school from ninth grade to today." Mr. Delfino has been attending college on Long Island but he, too, plans to go away to school in the fall. "So having distance between us will definitely be a new thing to cope with and adjust to as well, since I am so used to having him as my support system at my side."
The senior said she's "sad" that organizers couldn't put together a ski trip this year since she enjoys hitting the slopes. "The ski trip is usually just juniors/seniors for a weekend and last year it was so much fun," Ms. Freitag said. "We went to Okemo in Vermont. I think it would have been a great experience and it would have been nice to have a senior trip somewhere to look back on."
Looking back over the past four years, Ms. Freitag said she misses the magic of her freshman year, especially the winter sports season. "The girls' basketball team made it far into the playoffs and competed at Stony Brook University [for the Long Island championship]," she said. "Everyone took the train there and back to go see it. It was so fun and a lot of people got excited and were involved in supporting the team."
Much More Independent
The teenager has done a great deal of reflecting about the last four years and her classmates. "We've all changed drastically and become more independent," Ms. Freitag said. "I believe that who you are when you enter the high school and who you are when you leave the high school are two different people. I've grown so much."
She will leave high school happy with her scholastic experience. "I love all my Huntington School District teachers, from kindergarten up," Ms. Freitag said. "I loved dressing up for homecoming and prom. I love going to football games and lax games. The school I choose to attend next year must have a football and lax team! I think it's a huge part of school spirit and gives you things to look forward to during the week."
With college still eight months off in the future, Ms. Freitag plans to keep adding to her high school experiences. "I'm looking forward to the memories to come, like the remainder of the school year and summer with my friends," she said.