EHHS senior, Gonul Celik, shows academic success and gets involved to benefit her career after high school. Gonul has had many achievements in her EHHS career, including 4 years on the wrestling team, 1 year in the yearbook club, and becoming the class of 2025 president. Gonul shares how balancing her school, work, and home life is a difficult task, but in the long run it is worth the effort and struggles.
Gonul started her freshman year by joining wrestling, and will continue to participate this season in her senior year. She wrestles 6 days a week from November to February, and faces both boys and girls in her weight class. Gonul says that this is her favorite of all the activities that she participates in for EHHS. She said: “I get to physically and mentally challenge myself and see how much I can handle. It will help me after my school career because not only do I know how to defend myself, I know how to mentally stay strong and have a strong mindset throughout life’s obstacles.” Gonul also touched on how Coach Mark Tolla and Mr. Jeff Buck have been there for her throughout her entire high school career, seeing her at her best and worst moments.
Gonul also participates in yearbook club, which she joined her senior year. She explained the club is not as time consuming as wrestling, as she just takes pictures at events. She joined this club to be more involved, and she loves it from what she has experienced so far. Along with her place in wrestling and yearbook, she serves as the 2025 class president after being elected by the students during her junior year. This role takes up a lot of her time, due to fundraising, planning, and running for the role, but she enjoys it as a creative outlet for her and allows for her to connect with her classmates.
Gonul explains how she has a lot on her plate, and sometimes it gets hard for her to manage the workload of her job, hobbies, and school work. “It is really hard but time management plays a big role in it. In season, I go from school straight to practice, then I go straight to work. I change my clothes in the car. When I get home from work I do my homework.”
Culture affects many students’ lives here at EHHS, and Gonul speaks on her experience as a Turkish student who is surrounded by very few cultural similarities in her social life. She explains how her culture positively affects her home life, because most of her family is Turkish and she is able to express that at home. She continued, “I mainly hang out with my family and most of my family is also Turkish. I love my culture and I try my best to express it and inform people of Turkish culture as it means everything to me.” She also explains how her culture doesn’t affect school life, as she has adapted to the hard parts.
While Gonul doesn’t have a lot of time for her hobbies, when she does she likes lifting, playing harmonica, reading, and making money. She said, “I love making money, It satisfies me.” Along with those hobbies she also likes spending time with her friends. Gonul shared her favorite memory from high school, “One of my favorite memories was probably the first day of senior year when all my friends were in front of my car and we were taking pictures.” Gonul also has plans to go to college and get a job in law enforcement or criminal justice. Gonul using the extracurriculars at EHHS to prepare her for college, and a future career in what she loves doing.
