Andrew Koval, a Junior at HAHS, enjoys studying and learning new information. Out of all the classes Andrew is taking this year, his favorites are Anatomy, AP US History, and Chemistry because of his “amazing teachers and my overall fascination with the classes.” Along with enjoying the classes he is taking, he is involved with his class, especially since he used to be the Secretary for the student officers in the class of 2026 last year and the year prior. Andrew plans to go to college for a PhD in Pharmacology and then get a Masters in Neurology after high school, though he says that “those are extremely tough plans and things could change.”
His friends and his family are his inspiration and his support every day and he supports them in all their goals, too. A piece of advice he has is, “Even if times are tough, always look at what you have, take a deep breath, and then take another step forward.” If he could have dinner with any historical figure, he would choose to have dinner with Theodore Roosevelt, just because he wants to know how that man thought through all his decisions. Andrew’s friends describe him as “focused, hardworking, persevered, and kind.” His favorite song is Novia by Jake Daniels. Andrew’s favorite artists are Rembrant van Rijn as well as Casper David Friedrich. If Andrew could travel anywhere in the world, he would travel to Norway. His favorite time period to study history is the Meiji Restoration in Japan in 1868 to 1889. He chooses this time period because “it is a significant turning point in the distant history of Japan to opening up to the entire world.” Another history event he enjoys hearing about is when a single dog saved an Antarctic Explorer in the South Pole, which was named Togo. He believes that history does repeat itself because “everything seems to revolve in a circle. Whenever something occurs similar to something in the past, everything else that occured seems to follow nearly identically.” His favorite fun fact is that the hashtag or pound sign was originally called the Octothorpe.
Andrew loves to read and play games outside of school, especially playing video games or board games with his friends. Andrew says his favorite video game is Bloodborne because “the world building, the story, the characters, the theme and setting are all perfection.” Though he plays both single player and multiplayer games, he says he prefers single player games because they are calming. Skills he learned from playing video games would be Time management, supply management, and organization. Andrew prefers to play on the PC out of any form of gaming platform. Andrew enjoys playing Dungeons and Dragons with his friends, especially since his character is Arco, a Kenku, which is a bird-like humanoid. If Andrew could live in a video game world, he would live in Ace Combat 7. He chooses that world because “it is very similar to Earth, but it is much larger and has many other resources.” His advice to anyone trying to get better at Video Games is “Practice and take breaks, no point in trying to brute force something you are stuck on or are unable to do, take a deep breath and pause. You do much better after an hour or two of rest compared to getting annoyed at losing for hours on end.”
