Senior Graciela Batalla has many plans after high school such as working in the criminal justice field, more specifically forensics.

“I’ve been doing it for three years now and I love it,” said Batalla.

After School Matters is where Batalla gained an interest in forensics.

She has been doing this program for a total of three years, where she has learned many things.

Aside from doing forensics, she has also gained an interest in motivational speaking by listening to others presenting their stories. She says that motivational speakers talk about issues she can relate too.

“Motivational speakers never went over a topic of a hardship that I went through,” said Batalla.

In her free time and over the summer she spends most of her time reading books, which she said has helped her vocabulary skills.

“Most of these books consist of very large words and the vocabulary is way beyond mine,” said Batalla.

This summer Batalla participated in Chicago Ideas Week. It’s a program where teenagers can present their ideas on issues in their community or places in the world.

“They make different types of events around your area that attract other kids to participate,” said Batalla.

For now Batalla is focused on graduating. Her plans for college are to take the city college route and transfer into a four year university.

“It’s best if you go to community college first and then transfer so early on when you transfer to a university you will have to pay less,” said Batalla.

Batalla hopes that her dreams to go to college and continue to participate in Chicago Ideas Week will happen.She is confident that what she is doing now will prepare her.