Zoë Throop is someone you can approach and immediately become friends with. She has such a kind personality that you can easily get along with. She is a 17 years old senior and was originally from Michigan but moved around to different states including Tennessee, Florida, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Throop moved from Ohio after seven years of living there to Wisconsin where she attended Appleton North in her sophomore year due to her mother getting a job in Appleton.

Entering school during her sophomore year was hard for her because she believed that freshman year is the year that students find their group of friends, but she found friends quickly by just approaching them and asking to eat lunch with them. “Everybody I met here is so nice, so friendly.” Throop especially loved how big the school was, saying: “At my old school, my graduating class was only 120 students.” Comparing to the 400 students we have graduating this year, I could definitely say that is a whole new atmosphere to come into.

As far as careers go, Throop decided that she wants to go into Biomedical Engineering. She decided to go into Biomedical Engineering because of the impact it had in her own life. Her step-dad, Ed, was diagnosed with prostate cancer a couple years ago and underwent surgery, “The way they did the surgery was through a robot – the doctor didn’t touch him at all. The doctor just sat at the computer screen and did all of the movements and incisions using control panels with the computer screen, the entire time there was a robot was working on him.” It was a super precise and accurate procedure and now, thankfully, her step-dad Ed is completely cancer free. “It would be so cool if I were the one to design those things to help doctors and patients too.”

To go into Biomedical Engineering it involves a lot of math, calculus, and physics, and she wants to go for a master’s degree in college. A couple of the colleges she is looking at actually have programs that offer trips out to third world countries that don’t have the tools or resources to perform that surgery. “It’s a way for me to go into the medical field without actually having to deal with blood and guts, so I’m all for it!”

Throop has a strong faith core, thanks to her youth group she had in Ohio called Vineyard Church. The youth group held at that church was a big part of her life and why it was so hard for her to leave Cincinnati, Ohio. Throop was always super involved in her church. She was surrounded with a great group of people and got to listen to worship bands. The church that Throop went to was a nondenominational church meaning it doesn’t associate with just one religion. Leaving was difficult for Throop, but she found a new youth group that is just as amazing in Wisconsin.

I then asked her what other passions she has other than her youth group. She loves to read, run, and play guitar. She started playing guitar because her birth father passed away when she was one or two years old, and he loved to play guitar and would play all of the time. One day when she was living in Cincinnati she stumbled upon a guitar case and soon found out it was her father’s guitar, so she picked it up and from that day since has been playing it, never attending any lessons but continues to learn from it every day. She will play anything from Taylor Swift to The Lumineers as well as some worship songs.

The most important thing that Throop believes people should learn in life: “Appreciation for happiness.” A lot of times Throop says she tends to focus on the negative sources. “What’s the point in being negative? Having that mindset isn’t going to get you anywhere.” Throop says she tries to avoid focusing on the bad, but believes every now and again it’s normal and okay to be upset about things but at the same time to give yourself some perspective and look at the bigger picture. “As you grow up, you should just appreciate all the little things that can make a person happy.” That philosophy is what everyone should remember. Getting to know more about Zoë Throop really opened up a perspective that truly encounters how selfless and animated she really is; that no matter what she always keeps such a positive outlook/mindset,  and personally I think that is how everyone should be.