Sydney Glessner has been attending The Linsly School since sixth grade. She has been a member of the varsity football, basketball, and OVAC cheerleading team for all four years of her high school career. This year, Sydney served her fellow cheerleaders as one of their varsity football cheerleading captains. Sydney is also a member of the varsity track team, and participates in many clubs at The Linsly School, including: Minding Your Mind, SADD, Key, and German Club, all for three years. She was also a member of the German National Honors Society and is currently a member of the National Honors Society. Sydney has been apart of the Newspaper Club for all four years of high school. She has volunteered for the Wheeling Symphony Auxiliary Peterson Rehabilitation Center, Elmhurst, and Oglebay Institute School of Dance. Within her volunteering for the Wheeling Symphony Auxiliary, Sydney ushered patrons to seats at concerts, and set up and cleaned up symphony sponsored events. Because she had many volunteer hours with the Wheeling Symphony Auxiliary, she was a Page in the 2020 Viennese Winter Ball, and is a Cotillion member for the 2021 Viennese Spring Gala. At Peterson Rehabilitation Center, Sydney helped with a Parkinson’s Disease exercise class and made decorations for the residents’ doors. At Elmhurst, she ran Bingo games as an activity for the residents. Sydney has achieved many awards both associated with the school and not. During her freshman year, she was awarded with the “I Hope You Dance” scholarship for Institute’s School of Dance and a scholarship to New Jersey Ballet Company and School’s Summer Program. While she was a freshman, she was an essay winner for the Veterans of Foreign Wars Voices of Democracy essay contest. During Sydney’s sophomore track season, she received the Most Valuable Sprinter Award for accumulating the most points in the sprinting events. Also that year, she received a first place gold medal in all four of her events at the OVAC Track and Field Championship. When Sydney was a sophomore, she received the Stimac Award for the most improved German student. During her senior football cheerleading season, she was awarded with the Coach’s Award.
Sydney’s favorite memory of her time at The Linsly School is winning her first OVAC Cheerleading Competition in 2019. During her freshman year, her team received second place in the OVAC Cheerleading Competition in 2018. After receiving second place, her team was more determined than ever to take the first place trophy the following year. The next year, Sydney’s sophomore year, the OVAC cheerleading team won their division at the competition.
“I still remember eagerly waiting in a circle with other cheer teams on the gym floor at Wesbanco Area. It felt like forever. When we heard Linsly called for first place, we all jumped up in pure excitement and hugged each other. I am still to this day, so proud of my team and how we represent women’s sports at Linsly.”
One of Sydney’s biggest mentors at The Linsly School was Daniella Truong, who graduated from Linsly in 2017. Daniella was a best friend to her and a role model. Not only were Daniella and Sydney friends inside of school, they also danced together at Oglebay Institute. Daniella was the Head Prefect and she inspired Sydney to become a leader. Even though Daniella was older than Sydney, she still treated her as an equal. Sydney aspired to be hard working and friendly like Daniella. Looking towards Sydney’s future, she plans to attend a university, but is still undecided as to which one. She is also interested in continuing her career with dance at any future school she may go. She plans on being involved in clubs and possibly Greek Life in college. As of now, she plans to major in English and minor in Political Science. Eventually, Sydney wants to attend law school. Sydney’s advice for future Linsly students is to learn time management. She says that planning out studying and homework times helps to destress. According to Sydney, one should always work ahead to save time in the future.
“The older you get, the less your teachers will remind you to complete your assignments or overlook all of your work. Linsly taught me to be self-disciplined and self-motivated with your academics. I think this has prepared me very well for college.”
