Grace Schwarz '26

Grace Schwarz ’26 has been named a 2027 National Merit Semifinalist, along with two of our current seniors. All three students earned semifinalist honors based on their 2025 PSAT scores, but Grace graduated from ESA a year early and has since moved on to the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. We caught up with her to find out how things are going. Here’s our Q&A with Grace:

I am currently studying informatics with a concentration in cybersecurity. Informatics is kind of like computer science, except that we're using the tools that coders build, and we're managing those who use and create them. In addition, I'm currently the president of ACM-W, a club that supports and advocates for women in computing fields. I'm working on a research paper on biases of AI when translating scripture with a computer science and linguistics professor, a seminary professor, and possibly a rabbi (My experience with the many group projects at ESA has definitely helped me learn to manage and work with many people in projects). 

I'm the AI Strategy Consultant, helping businesses see where they can use AI to increase productivity, at Opportunity Machine, a local business incubator. I'm a member of my Church Council. I'm learning the shofar, I'm learning Ancient Hebrew, and I'm the Vice President of LAIC, a company dedicated to transparency with AI. We do courses on how AI works, and are working on one on AI biases, ethics, and hallucinations. I hope to eventually become a seminary professor teaching Ancient Near Eastern (ANE) studies and Ancient Hebrew/Aramaic Studies.

During high school, I was able to, with the help of the wonderful teachers at ESA, including Ms. Andrea Fortier, write a full-length musical, including libretto and music. I was also a member of the Mayor's Youth Advisory Council, National Honor Society, and Mu Alpha Theta. I volunteered at the animal shelter (definitely recommend to anyone who even remotely likes animals or wants to do volunteer work-- you get volunteer hours to play with dogs!!). And I was learning Ancient Hebrew then, too.

I think what inspires me most as a learner is history. You look back maybe 100, 200, 500 years and people didn't know half of what we know today. Nowadays, there's so much to learn and do, and so many opportunities. The average kid today probably knows more than an emperor in King Louis the XIV's time! Maybe it's ESA, maybe it's my family, maybe it's built into me... But I feel like I've always just been interested in how the world works. And the fact that we can now know this stuff that people years ago would have given an arm and a leg to learn (and sometimes did) has just been a motivating factor. It's also really fun to be able to understand why things happen the way they do. Who does gravity work this way? What if you mix these chemicals? Why does the government work this way? It just feels so empowering to know why, because it's not a mystery any more. And when others ask, you know, and you can make sense of the world and use that knowledge to do great things. That's why I love learning.

I don't think I realized what made ESA so great until after I had graduated. I read a lot of research books over the summer, and many of them were about learning and civil discourse. It only took me a few pages to realize that everything that they were saying to do, ESA had done. Everything from encouraging different perspectives, to teaching us how to think for ourselves, to giving us the opportunity to grow and learn in our own time and ways. I also think ESA has uniquely prepared me for college in a way that other peoples' schools didn't seem to. While most of the students are still struggling with time management, figuring out how to talk to teachers, finding out how to do homework and tests and have time for it all - from my time at ESA, it's second nature. I know how to multitask, take hard tests, study, and take notes from a lecture. I know what works best for me, and the research-based methods of how to study best. I know not to procrastinate. I know how to talk to a professor after class. I can give a class presentation easily. And I think ESA has taught me to love learning. I'm not just memorizing for the good grades - I legitimately want to know. And my baseline for what I know is higher, too. I recognize more than half of the stuff I'm learning in my ENVS 150 class from my biology times at ESA. I guess if I had to sum it all up, I would say that ESA teaches you how to think and learn, not just how to memorize. And you don't realize it when you're there, because all you see is the memorization. But when you graduate and meet other people, you'll see how you think differently, and are able to speak with people with different perspectives, recognize logical fallacies, write A+ essays without batting an eyelash - all because of ESA.

Thanks, Grace!