Always finding a way to succeed in school and on the soccer field, Kate Gardner didn’t have many doubts about her junior year being any different, but that couldn’t have been further from the truth. Never facing this before, she had to blindly navigate through one of the most academically important years of highschool.
Junior year, despite Gardner’s achievements, she has faced many setbacks rooted from stress. Gardner said, “I’ve always been an anxious person.” Having a schedule full of AP and ECE classes, Gardner felt overwhelmed leading to a lot of procrastinating, saying, “at first, it was hard for me to manage my time well.”
Her time management was tested when she missed a lot of school due to traveling to different states for soccer. Gardner has been playing for CT Rush Select, a highly competitive soccer team. In her eight years on Rush, she has had many tournaments and college showcases out of state. In 2025 alone, she traveled to Florida in January, Texas in February and Virginia in March, missing several days of school for each. Gardner said, “It was difficult to catch up at times, but communicating with my teachers and keeping up with my homework while I was away helped me not feel as far behind in my work.”
Along with missing school, Gardner missed quality time with her family. She explained, “With traveling so much for soccer I did miss some time with my siblings, but during those trips I created close friendships with my teammates and spent a lot of quality time with my parents on long car rides.”
Gardner especially feels the stress and pressure when managing academics, athletics and her personal life. “I definitely get stressed out easily, and it’s something I struggle with when trying to balance schoolwork, sports, extracurricular activities, and friends and family,” she said. She often feels comfort and confidence in being proactive and intentional with her time, “if I am nervous for a test, studying will help me feel more confident in myself. Plus, taking some time to just relax and spend time with my friends and family always helps too.”
Instead of giving up and falling behind when feeling overwhelmed, Gardner came up with better studying habits and tried to stay very organized by using a planner. “ I learned to adjust and develop better habits and have been able to organize my schoolwork, social life, and sports well.” she said.
From an early age Gardner found success in school and enjoyed it; she participated in the national spelling bee in fifth grade and learned about the ecosystem at an ecology camp in the summers. Since then, she has set it as a standard for herself to maintain her good grades. This academic excellence stems from her natural curiosity and desire to learn. “I’ve always had a natural desire and curiosity to learn new topics or skills and push myself to do my best,” she explained. “I like a challenge and proving to myself that I can accomplish difficult things.”
During her four years at Morgan, she has been a part of a variety of extracurriculars including, Morgan girls soccer team, Interact club (Secretary), National Honors Society (Vice President), Spanish Honors Society, Spirit Squad and being the co-founder of Raffles for Wishes. Outside of Morgan, she is a peer tutor at Eliot and has been playing premier soccer with CT Rush on their Select team.
Gardner accomplishments are just as impressive and vary from earning First Team all conference junior and senior year, to earning the Yale book award. “Over the years, I have dedicated a lot of time and effort into my academics” she says, “I am especially proud of being named a Morgan Scholar.”
Reflecting on her years at Morgan, Gardner speaks highly of the influential teachers who have helped on her academic journey, saying “I honestly have loved so many teachers at Morgan.” One that specifically stuck out is Senora Luther, having her for both Honors and AP Spanish. Gardner said, “she pushed us to learn Spanish by only speaking Spanish in class. It was scary at first, but it really helped me become a more confident person, and I’m grateful to Senora Luther for that.”
Gardner was excited going into Luther’s class every day, explaining “it felt different from other classes; we had real conversations and discussions every day in Spanish which made me feel a lot more comfortable with the language.”
Senora Luther stood out as more than just a teacher to Gardner, saying, “You could clearly tell how much she cared about her students as people. She was always eager to hear about our weekends and was first to support us in our athletic and academic accomplishments.”
One of Gardner’s favorite classes was AP Biology, which was very impactful. “It sparked my interest to pursue a career in biology,” she said. “Although it was difficult and a heavy workload, I always looked forward to going to this class.”
Gardner credits much of her accomplishments to her parents, who have shown endless support on and off the field. She remarked, “They have always been my biggest supporters in not just school, but also soccer. They committed so much time for me to play club soccer, and I’m so grateful for that. I don’t know what I would do without them.”
Even with all that Kate has done at Morgan, she wishes she has done it all sooner. Gardner shares the advice, “I would try to get involved sooner. Most of my extracurriculars, I started towards the end of my sophomore year and into my junior year. I wish I had gotten more involved my freshman year.”
Leaving Morgan, Gardner plans to attend a college in the Northeast and hopes to play club soccer as well. Going into this next chapter, Gardner will carry the lessons and strategies she learned when facing diversity her junior year. “I want to study Molecular and Cell Biology in college. I hope to also go to medical school to become a dermatologist or possibly explore a path in scientific research,” she stated.
