Adrian Bak: The Future Biotechnologist

During his career in high school, Adrian Bak has achieved many great things within his studies. With these great things, he has achieved the honor of graduating at rank 9 out of 20! 

Throughout this very new and difficult school year, Adrian Bak has described his senior year as being “challenging, unique and transformative.” Although this school year was very challenging for Adrian, he overcame these challenges by continuing his best in school and interacting with teachers if he needed any help with anything. All through Adrian’s high school career, his favorite class was AP Biology. He states, “I truly enjoyed everything about that class, including the interesting topics, interactive labs, and most of all, the amazing field trips.” Due to this class being taken by Adrian  pre pandemic, he got to enjoy so many great field trips that he will never forget like doing a lab in the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, visiting Stony Brook University and giving guided tours of Fire Island to fourth graders. 

Adrian has worked so hard and achieved so many of his goals that he is able to attend SUNY at Buffalo. He will be majoring in Biotechnology. When asked what extracurricular activities he has been involved in, he responded, “For the past few years, I have been very active in science club, international club, ski club, and National Honor Society.” He also has described that he has been the treasurer of both the Ski club and the Science club and is currently the president of the International club. Due to Adrian’s partaking in these extracurricular activities, it has helped him enjoy some of his hobbies. 

There have been many different teachers who have made an impact on students throughout their high school career, Adrian states that, “Mr. Polochak, my AP Bio teacher, is definitely the person that had the greatest impact on me.” Adrian continues to describe that Mr. Polochak has been the teacher who has “helped me select a career path that really interests me, and I’m incredibly thankful”.

For Adrian, taking many different AP classes was difficult due to the workload, projects and tests that were different from his other classes, but he says it was very rewarding. He states, “However, I am glad I took all these classes, as they not only provided me with college credit but also helped get me ready for college in general”. 

When asked what his most important lesson he learned during the COVID-19 pandemic, Adrian responded, “The pandemic has taught me that while things may change, that’s no reason for me to stop living my life, even if I have to do it a bit differently than expected”. 

Throughout this crazy COVID year, Adrian Bak has stayed optimistic and hard working throughout it all.