Rodayna Abdelhalim is 15 years old, she is a Junior at Wilsonville High School. She was born in France, but grew up in Egypt which makes her love Egyptian food. She moved to the United States during her seventh grade year. Her mother is French, she did not graduate, however, Rodayna’s father is an engineer therefore her parents have very different perspective on life and this has allowed her to view life through both of their lenses. In her free time, Rodayna likes do relax by drawing or painting. Rodayna has done martial arts since she was three, she’s trained in Karate, Kung Fu, and she’s currently a black belt in Taekwondo.

Apart from being being very adept in Martial Arts, Rodayna is taking 6 AP classes. “I’m taking AP Chem, AP Physics I, AP English, AP Psychology, AP Calc AB, and AP Stats.” At first she had a few bumps in the road adapting to her schedule but now she has it managed and still has time to go to her martial arts class.

Apart from her busy academic schedule and her martial arts classes, she’s also involved in many extracurricular activities. She says, “I’m in Key Club, NHS, and I’m in Art Club.” Key Club and National Honors Society (NHS) are community service organization that encourages students to get involved in their community. Art Club is where students who really enjoy art to meet with other students and mentor who share that passion.

Between school, extracurriculars, and martial arts, time management is hard. In regards to time management, she says, “whenever I’m doing something, I set an a time aside to do it and get rid of all other distractions. Like if I’m doing my homework, I get rid of my phone and not think about anything else except for the subject I’m doing, even if it’s just for an hour. Same goes for Taekwondo, when I’m at Taekwondo, I’m not thinking about ‘Oh, what’s homework for stats.’ I just focus on Taekwondo.”

With a busy schedule, like the one that Rodayna holds, there needs to be some downtime to relax and do something that you love. To unwind, Rodayna says that she likes to catch up on her sleep. One of her passions is painting, on a day off, she also enjoys painting, getting on of her feelings and emotions on a blank canvas and seeing how it all come together in the end. She also like to take showers where she pampers herself, like wearing a facemask.

Everyone has goals and ambitious, things and ideas that drive them. For Rodayna, her goal is cardiothoracic. “I want to be a cardiothoracic surgeon. I just love the anatomy of the heart. The fact that you could save someone’s life, almost like “fixing them.” It’s giving them new hope. I don’t know, it just makes me all jittery inside. Also, my grandpa from my dad’s side, died from heart cancer when I was very little and that is something that got me interested in researching that.”

Some advice that she has for students who have a hard time with school and time management is, “ask for help. It’s the best thing to do. When people are struggling, they tend to keep it to themselves. Which does not help at all, trust me. As to advice on life, talk to a friend  or someone you trust, I know it sounds like a cliche but it helps.”

Rodayna Abdelhalim, 15 year old girl, immigrant from Egypt, taking the world by storm.