About Me

My name is Sophie Whitten, and I am a senior at Vandalia Community High School. My parents are Chris and Carrie Whitten, and I have a younger sister named Ellie and two dogs named Max and Charlie. Throughout high school, I have been actively involved in Code Red, FCA, Interact, the VCHS Marching Band, yearbook, and my church youth group. Some of my favorite high school memories and reasons for the CEO business path I am taking have been created through the help of the clubs and extracurriculars I have been a part of. One of my favorite places to be is marching onto the football field for the pregame show as the sun is setting. All you can see is a golden halo of light around the head of the person in front of you and all you can hear is the soft shuffle of our feet in the dewy grass underneath the steady sound of four count taps from the snare. Moments like this sparked my love for photography. I wanted to somehow capture the feeling I had in an image. Aside from the clubs I am in, I have also been a part of the honors English and math classes in the school, and recently, I was inducted into the National Honors Society. Not only do I love photography, I also love to write. One of my proudest moments was in writing my article, “The Bullies and the Bees.” It was a bitter-sweet success that taught me a lot. I wrote the article as a kind of letter to myself in a time of hurt and frustration in my life, and for some reason, I decided to publish it to social media. The next thing I knew, I was being asked if people could have copies of it to keep in their classrooms and being congratulated on my work. I knew that I wrote the words, but God held the pen. It showed me that even in my lowest times, I could be used to work for good, and I was, and still am, proud to be part of an article that meant something to people. After graduation, I plan on either attending Kaskaskia College for two years before transferring or going to Southern Illinois University Edwardsville to study secondary English education. My goals for CEO are to learn how to run and manage a successful and long-lasting business while maintaining excellent customer service and attainable business and career goals.