Students Accepted into MATA Are Excited For Next Year!

Students recently got their results back for the Academies. Students were interviewed for the classes they took and what they think about their acceptance and the school itself. Students were also asked to talk about why they applied and how they found out about the school. The Academies of Loudoun has three different programs, the Academy of Engineering and Technology (AET), Academy of Science (AOS) and the Monroe Advanced Technical Academy (MATA). 

The students that were interviewed were accepted into the MATA program. Everyone’s reason for applying differs.

“What motivated me to apply for MATA was my passion for pharmacy,” said sophomore Ngan Huynh, who is taking the pharmacy technician class next year. “I felt really fortunate to know about the opportunity. Because I always have to translate for my parents at the pharmacy, gradually and unknowingly start to gravitate towards the field itself. The personality and expertise of pharmacists made me want to actually be them.” 

The MATA program provides many opportunities and classes for different people to take that are interested in varying fields. 

“The pharmacy technician course allows me to gain experience and prepare me for my dream career of becoming a pharmacist because I get an early start as well as more exposure to the field,” Huynh said.

There are courses in any field that a student can think of, and if not, there are classes that are related to it. The programs also help students better understand and prepare for life by trying out the classes to see if they like the field or not

“I wanted to think ahead and try out my potential career choice in a class before applying for college,” said sophomore Jiho Park.

The application process was also a difficult and lengthy process.

¨I associated myself with multiple organizations to help with my interests in the medical field, and I structured myself to be a well rounded student to make the best of my applications,¨ said freshman Maadhavan Iyer, who is taking intro to health and sciences next year.

Resumes and career goal statements also depended on the class, one had to find all the things that relate to the class they picked. If one applies to multiple classes, they need to combine all their topics into one piece and hope it makes sense.

“I wanted to go to MATA because I want to pursue art as a career and animation sounded appealing but I wanted to try it out in a class first before committing to it in college so that’s the main reason why I applied to MATA,” Park said. “I also wanted to go because I wanted another excuse to quit math. I didn’t want to take any more AP electives because I’m already taking like four AP classes already, someone said there was free coffee at the academies, and also the idea of going to the academies is pretty cool.”

Park is taking the Animation class at MATA.