While most students don’t even know what they want to do with their lives by junior year, freshman Natalia Pehar has got it all figured out. After first walking through the halls of Niles West, she was already accustomed to how high schooll worked, and she was ecsatic for all that was about to come her way.

During the summer, Pehar attended the volleyball summer camp, and due to her experience level, was put with the varsity team. In middle school, she started playing on a club team called Velocity, and moved onto a slightly more elite travel team, Energy. More recently, she made the Wildcat Jrs., which is the Northwestern feeder travel club, and a very hard team to make.

“Being on a varsity as a freshman isn’t as scary as I thought it would be. I thought it was going to be a lot worse, but my team is my family, they are all like my older sisters. I’m really excited for this season because I’m starting as a freshman! I can’t wait to just go out there and play,” Pehar said.

After high school, Pehar plans to play in college, hopefully at Penn State. Aside from continuing her volleyball career, she wants to major in Forensic Science.

“Watching the news and hearing about shootings and other crimes made me really interested in learning about how to find out who committed the crimes. I also love CSI,” Pehar said.

Because she already has big plans for her life in high school and out, Pehar is just excited for all of the great things that come along with high school to start. Aside from her busy student-athlete related life, she tries to spend as much time as she can with friends to have some stress free fun.

If there is anything that Pehar has learned, it is no have big dreams and to never give up. After all of her hard work, it has finally paid off, and she urges other students to do the same.