Emily Ziajor: Her culture and hobbies

by Julissa Fuentes

Emily Ziajor is proud of her Polish culture and stands her ground for what she believes is important.

“My culture is extremely important. It’s a fundamental aspect of who I am,” Ziajor said. “It was a vital thing growing up.”

 Ziajor is going to be senior at West Chicago High School and just graduated her private Polish school last year. She took both public and private school at the same time.

According to Ziajor, Polish school is a cultural school where kids who attended spent three hours learning about language & reading. “Half a semester history & half a semester of geography along with religion,” she said.

Public schools have grades K-12, Ziajor says that her private school goes by grades in scales one through five.

“One was being the worst scale and five being the best scale, I was in the higher five category,” she said.

Ziajor also mentioned that her private school has lessons only on Fridays and Saturdays. She went on Saturdays and some kids went on Fridays, it depends on if the students and the district can make a schedule that works for both.

One of Ziajor’s hobby was enjoy playing badminton. However, like most school restrictions of playing sports on teams outside the school, Ziajor couldn’t play badminton due to her attendance at both her public and private school. She still enjoys badminton and plans to play for her senior year.

Emily Ziajor

Next year in March, Ziajor will be traveling to Poland through her polish school.

“I grew up on that prominent Polish household,” she said.

She wants to connect more with her culture and learn about her cultural heritage. She plans to make sure that she enjoys every moment and make her trip as memorable as possible.

“I want to carry that culture further into my future and not lose that part of history because I feel like history shapes everything that is now,” she said.

She is a very artistic person with an interest in both design and photography. She aims to continue her work through journalism.

She was in the Polish newspaper in her private school, she has made designs for her school mascot when her teacher asked for designs, she is the leader of the AV club at her school, and she has photographed a wedding through her photography club.

“I’ve always had a connection with art ever since a kid, so it only feels natural to me,” she said. “But I love to be able to come up with concepts and execute with pen and paper or camera lens. It’s just really fascinating.”

Ziajor has chosen to do Journalism this year because she loves to write and wants to get more of an experience as she continues to move forward with the possibility of going into photojournalism. “I want to try something different and give it a shot,” Ziajor said.