Finding Thriving Relationships: Chloe’s Story

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My name is Chloe. I’m from Florida and I’m an Ascend Foundation student, I’m also enrolled in the digital marketing track.

I enrolled in Ascend because I knew that I didn’t want to take the traditional higher education route. College and universities never really excited me, and it was never a goal of mine. I still really wanted to get a community of people my age with the same values. When I was nearing the end of high school, I had no idea what I wanted to do or how I would accomplish it, and I felt a lot of pressure to try to have my entire life figured out before graduating. So, when I found out about Unbound and Ascend I was really excited about it, but, I was still kind of unsure about it. So I enrolled in Navigate, which really helped me for my decision and it was really great. I loved the content and getting to interact with students and so that actually played a huge part in me signing up for Ascend. 

For my Ascend project,  I’m going to be partnering with my local pregnancy center to put on and plan a dance performance telling the stories of different women and girls going through unplanned pregnancies. I chose this project because I want to help raise awareness for the pro-life movement in my local community. I personally am an example of what can happen when someone chooses life for their baby. My mom had me through an unexpected pregnancy and if she hadn’t chosen life I would not be here today, and so something that’s really close to my heart and it’s been really cool because it feels like it’s come full circle, and I feel like I’m now able to use my story to help stand up for life and help tell the stories of other people 

My biggest challenge so far has been expanding and then articulating the way I think and how I complete things. My Ascend project has definitely been doing that already. It’s definitely been pushing me to do things that I’m not comfortable with and things that I never done before, so that’s something that has pushed me already and will continue to challenge me through the rest of the year.

One of the main benefits that I have personally experienced through joining Unbound, and so far being in the Ascend program, is the community and how awesome everyone has been how nice everyone is. I feel like can talk to anyone about anything, it’s like I’ve known them forever. I also really loved the team aspect of that, because it’s been really cool getting to get to know like a smaller group of people and then really get to know them on a deeper level. 

Attending Apex for the first time was one of the coolest experiences I’ve ever had. I knew it was going to be great, but my expectations were just completely blown out of the water. I loved listening to the different speakers and meeting my team and just meeting all these new people. I especially loved how open the community is and how it felt like anyone I talked to, I have known them for my entire life, and it was just a super really good experience.

If you’re considering Ascend, one thing that I would say, it’s something that I heard at Apex, was that you will get out of this what you put into it. And I’ve seen that be especially true, especially the last few months of joining Ascend. So, my biggest piece of advice would probably be to work hard and put effort into your classes, and then be really intentional with your relationships. It’s just been really awesome and if you do that you will thrive in this program.

Want to learn more about Ascend and see if it’s the right fit for your student? Schedule a call with the Unbound team today!

Chloe Sieber