Ashwin Chona

SAGE HILL HIGH SCHOOL

VDA Class of 2015

Following graduation from VDA I have been attending Sage Hill School. My classroom success at Sage Hill is largely due to my experiences at VDA. At VDA, my teachers gave me the confidence and passion to learn. Through their teachings I developed a strong foundation that helped me make a successful transition to high school. I cannot describe how much their devotion and enthusiasm motivated me to learn.

My experiences in VDA classrooms were also a major reason for my high school academic successes.  For example, at Sage Hill I encountered similar discussions in my English classes that we had at VDA’s literature class; this allowed me to be a leader in class discussions at Sage. VDA’s vocabulary classes also enabled me to transition smoothly into Latin since the vocabulary taught in VDA was based off of Latin roots. Furthermore, Mr. Black instilled a strong foundation of math during my time at VDA that allowed me to successfully take on advanced math classes in high school.

Outside of the classroom, VDA played an important role in my development as an athlete. The no-homework policy benefited me as an athlete since it allowed me to pursue my passion of playing baseball after school. It allowed me to enjoy the experience of learning in the VDA classroom. The no-homework policy made me a better student as I was to learn more in a class environment versus independently through homework assignments. The policy also allowed me to travel with my baseball team for out of town weekend tournaments. My baseball skills improved and I also become a more well-rounded person through the experiences I had with my teammates.

Some of the accomplishments in high school that I am proud of are:

• Featured in Sports Illustrated, being a student ambassador as a freshman
• Becoming a part of Publications (the newspaper) next year
• Straight-A student
• One of five finalists for 2017 USA Today National Baseball Player of Year
• 1st team All-Academy League 2016 + 2017
• 1st team All-Division 6 2016, 2016 Division 6 CIF Champion
• 2016 Daily Pilot Dream Team
• 4 No-Hitters in 2017
• 20-1 record in high school