Future Business Leaders of America, Link Crew, Relay for Life, Student Leadership, band, marching band, Model UN, Mundelein Stand Up, political campaign internships and newspaper—all these are activities Adriana Feijoo, senior, has been involved in throughout her years at MHS.

“My older sister was probably my biggest inspiration because she was very involved in the school, and then I got to see how cool it was to be involved,” said Feijoo.

After admiring the involvement of her sister Daniella Feijoo who graduated in 2015, Feijoo decided to join FBLA and Student Leadership, particularly after seeing how much fun they were once she joined.

Now she serves in leadership roles for many of the activities on her extracurricular list, including School Wide President for Student Leadership.

She decided to run for title positions in Student Leadership because of two teachers–Student Leadership Advisers Randy Lerner and Cynthia Henrichs.

“They were always really encouraging and always inspired me to keep reaching higher,” said Feijoo.

Lerner sees Feijoo as a true role model for other MHS students.

“Adriana is passionate and outspoken in her leadership roles. She really cares about improving MHS. She is able to mentor younger students to help them find success, like she and many of her peers have,” he said. “She advocates for the student body and looks for new ideas that will improve our status quo.”

Feijoo said it is such a rush when she is trying to get all of her events and duties finished.

Although always busy, she tries to give her friends and family some attention as well.

“I think one of the hardest things when you are super busy is trying to balance schoolwork, homework, tests, any work left over from the clubs/activities and then trying to also have time with my friends and my family,” she said.

But the stress seems worth it to Feijoo when she finishes a successful event for the school.

For example, she described her Homecoming weeks as eventful, saying it becomes hard for her to focus on other work with her Homecoming commitments, but she also said the hard work pays off in the end.

“Once the events are happening, you are really proud of all the work that you and the other people did to make it happen, and in the end, it is worth all of the struggles,” she said.

Her biggest struggles stem from juggling all her commitments.

“I try to always put school work first because I know that my grades are a reflection of my ability to balance everything,” she said. “I also try to be reliable, and when I know I can’t do something, I try to give it to someone that might not have as much.”

This also helps Feijoo get other students involved in the various programs.

She even wants to get her younger sister to be a leader like her one day, and her younger sister, Freshman Sofia Feijoo, described Adriana Feijoo as her role model. However, she admitted that having such a successful older sister has its “ups and downs”.

“I get to know a lot of upperclassmen, learn more about the school and how things run,” said Sofia Feijoo. “[However,] a lot is expected of me from being compared to my sisters that have been prominent leaders at MHS.”

Adriana Feijoo has had many great moments throughout her time at MHS, and she attributed a part of that to her leadership strength of being outgoing.

“I think the best qualities about being a leader is being outgoing and making sure everyone around you feels important or included, but I also want to surround myself with positive people that are hard-working, so they push me to keep going,” said Feijoo who plans to study political science and pre-law in college.