Morningside junior Amaya Givens uses her gladdening attitude and her passion to help others on the cheerleading squad and beyond. Joining the team helped develop methods to juggle her schooling and her other extracurricular activities.
“Being a cheerleader kind of felt like my natural state, I could definitely hype people up and make people feel good,” Givens said.
This marks Givens’ first year as a cheerleader; she enjoyed dancing at a young age and decided to become a cheerleader before her time in high school was over. The attempt of evoking joy in others is always worthwhile to her.
“I know sometimes it is discouraging, the crowd is dry, and they just are watching and we do cheers for them and they just stay there,” Givens said. “Sometimes it is difficult, but at the end of the day, it’s still easy to be preppy and be energetic for them.”
Catching on to the routines are no problem for Givens, she finds that doing homework after a long day of school and practice can be a difficult feat. She recently found a solution to her problem.
“A challenge I face was coming out of practice at 5:00 P.M. and being tired,” she said. “[I] just wanted to take a little break and that was a big challenge that I overcame.”
Cheerleading taught Givens the importance of keeping it pushing, she applies that in many different aspects of her life.
“You just have to keep going and things are going to get hard and you might not understand it at first,” Givens said. “You can’t stay in the same place because then you’re never gonna grow.”
Givens is currently taking two AP classes, but a class that she appreciated taking was drama. She noted how she liked the energy of the class.
“[the teacher] would teach us definitions of words that actually people use, like producers,” she said. “I actually learned what that category was, what you’re actually doing, what you’re saying.”
Along with cheerleading, Givens is a member of the club called Lean Crew, where she helps freshmen students get acclimated to Morningside.
“We actually get a whole list, a roll sheet and everything,” Givens said. “We’re just a support group, we meet up, we talk about issues, we check on their grades.”
Givens aspires to attend Cal State Long Beach and become a Neonatal nurse. When her niece was born, she was inspired by the care the nurses give the babies.
“I genuinely just love making sure people,” Givens said. “I want to get into nursing because I love the environment, I love the care they gave [the babies] and then I know how much that means to families.”
To gain nursing experience, Givens volunteers at a hospital once a week.
“I run errands, anything they need me to do,” she said. “Discharge patients, take them out, deliver them flowers, bring them to the cafeteria, get their food.”
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