By Sanya Bery ’17, Staff Writer 

As students in this day and age, we have to deal with competition every minute, all the time. Competition infuses every area of school, from the sports fields, to the classrooms, to the stage. It is a known fact that competition brings out the best and worst in people. Let’s see what students at Newark Academy have to say about what competition does to them.

The Arts

Newark Academy students have proven themselves in the category of Arts time and time again. This is evident all year long, with the Fall Drama, the Winter Musical, the countless band and chorus concerts, and the galleries of artwork. However, with so much talent in the school, it is difficult to stand out. Erin Mooney’16 is a talented singer who is a member of the Academy Voices. She believes that competition can help or hurt a musician, and that competition is “great if it motivates you, but you can’t let it intimidate you.” Sometimes, competition can be the reason someone joins an activity. Coleman Hughes ’14, is an excellent trombonist who not only plays in the school’s ensembles but also has played in a select jazz band during Grammy Awards Week. He said, “It seems that the only way to get kids my age to want to play music on a really high level is through competition.” As Coleman reflected, competition in our generation is at such a high level that some people are doing an art just to be the best.

Athletics:

Not only do Newark Academy students shine on stage, but on the field as well. Athletes show dedication on game day, but they also put countless numbers of hours into practice. Athletics revolve around competition, as one person or team comes out as a winner. Sam Wood’15 is a dedicated basketball player and believes that competition

helps morph a person into an athlete. He said competition gives players a reason “to want to do better and win; if there was no competition, there’d be no reason to try.” Jessica Lim’14 is an amazing athlete who was captain of both the Cross Country and Track teams. She agreed with Sam’s statement and said that competition is helpful specifically in running because it “can motivate you to be better and help you to realize your own potential. It helps to strengthen you physically on the sports field, but there is also a mental endurance as well that I definitely see carried into my day-to-day life.” However, she realizes that competition also has some negative effects. She said, “If you get too wrapped up in competing against people, you forget about what is really important… you have to remember in every competition there is a winner and a loser, and you can’t win all of them.”

Academics:

Every student at Newark Academy is intelligent, and that is why NA has such a competitive atmosphere when it comes to studies. Crystal Wang’17 said that competitiveness in studies motivates her, but also it makes her “very self-conscious about how much intelligence I have, because there’s always someone out there who’s better than you.” Competition can motivate you to be as good as your classmates, but at the same time, comparing yourself to others can hurt you.

Competition does not exist in only one activity – it lives everywhere. Students in this generation have to learn how to use competition to motivate them, instead of bringing them down. Like all the talented performers, athletes and students of Newark Academy, we must understand the pros and cons of competition and how to use competition to help us, rather than hurt us.