Senior Leah Scoppa is an exemplary student at Morgan who is very active in the community. She has taken Journalism for four semesters. This year, Leah is one of the Morgan PawPrints Chief Editors. She helps English teacher Leslie Chausse monitor the newsroom along with three other chief editors.
Leah is President of Student Government, Secretary of the Interact Club, and a member of the Social Justice Club, National Honor Society, Spanish Honor Society, Morgan Mentoring, Morgan Drama Club, Morgan Debate Club, the Math League, and the Spirit Squad. Leah said, “I think I have been successful because I’m a very determined and passionate person, so when I set a goal, I usually achieve it because I work very hard towards it.”
Leah has also been extremely active in the arts at The Morgan School. She took Chorus all four years of Morgan and participated in The Morgan Musical every year, even during COVID-19 when the musical was virtual. Freshman year, she was a dancer in the musical Crazy for You. Sophomore year, she played the lead, Audrey, in the musical Little Shop of Horrors. Last year, she was a supporting cast member for the musical Damn Yankees. Roles haven’t been posted yet for this year, but she says she will go all out no matter what.
Leah has been dancing since she was three, and competitively from age seven to fifteen. She shared, however, that competitive dance can take a toll on one’s mental health and takes up a lot of time, so she has taken a break from competitive dance for the past two years. She still dances with the hopes of being on the dance team in college.
This year, Leah took Caribbean Geography at Wesleyan University every Monday. In college, she will study political science to make an impact and help those who need it. She will also study pre-law with the hopes of becoming a lawyer, focusing on custody law, social justice, or criminal law. Then, she hopes to become a politician in the government, though she stated that this will take years of building up local status. She applied to many schools in and around cities for easier access to volunteer and internship opportunities.
She loves Morgan and being involved in all the clubs. She said she loves school, learning, and studying and while she has had trouble the last few years in her personal life, school has always been a constant.
Leah said, “My biggest inspiration is my mom. She’s my best friend. I’ve been through a lot in the past few years. I’ve had friendship issues. I’ve had struggles, and my mom has always been the person I’ve gone to and my backbone in life. My grandparents are a really great support system, and all my family and friends I have.”
Leah shares advice for the underclassmen, “You just need to try your best, always. What I learned is that it’s really hard to be perfect, and I thought I had to be perfect for the first three years.” She explained, “I thought I had to be a perfectionist. I thought I had to get everything done, but you just have to try your best and make sure you study and put your best foot forward.”
