William Cintra

Below is a history of my work experience and current academic resume, including all honors and extracurriculars I have earned and participated in.

Governor’s Scholar Program: 12th grade

• The Governor’s Scholar Program is a very prestigious program only very prevalent in Kentucky. To get into this program, the applicant must fill out an extensive application filled with a lot of writing describing the applicant’s character, personality, and moral. Only the best of the best are accepted into this program; I am proud to say that I am an alumni of this program. Last summer I got to participate in GSP over the summer and absolutely loved it! Getting to live on a college campus, meeting new people, learning new things, and making lifelong relationships all through this program was amazing. Even now, long after GSP is over I still keep in contact with a majority of the people who attended and talk to the friends I made there everyday. GSP is a once in a lifetime opportunity and I couldn’t be more grateful that I got to experience it. In fact I was originally accepted as an alternate to GSP. I wrote several letters, called the GSP office numerous times until finally they notified me that there was a spot available in the third session of GSP at Murray State University. Not only did I have to fill out the entire application, I had to do extra work to get in. I earned my spot at GSP and I couldn’t be more grateful that I got in.

Youth Salute: 11th grade 

• The Youth Salute program recognizes students for their outstanding achievements in school and athletics. To become a member there is an application, after applying for this program I got in by being qualified as a good student scholastically by maintaining a higher than 3.0 GPA, and also by holding at least two leadership roles in the process. Being a good student and athlete is my top priority, but being recognized for it isn’t so terrible.

Honor Roll Student Athlete: 9th, 10th grade 

• Every year that I participated in the Soccer team at my school I was given the Honor Roll Student Athlete award. This award recognizes athletes who not only excelled on the field but also in the classroom. Being an honor roll student is very important to me. I’ve always felt that I’ve been stronger in the classroom than on the soccer field, and it’s nice to be recognized for it.

Wrestling Academic All-State: 9th, 10th, 11th grade

• During my time playing soccer, I also wrestled. I’ve been wrestling since my freshmen year up until now, and every year I’ve been given the Academic All-State Award. The Academic All-State Award is an award that recognizes students with exemplary grades outside of practicing their sport, it also recognizes the recipient as one of the many great students/athletes in the entire state. Since I was awarded a similar award with Soccer, I got the same treatment for Wrestling because I care about my grades more than anything. Being an athlete is an honor, but being a great student is so much more valuable.

TSA President: 11th grade

• The Technology Student Association is a club present in most schools around the country, at our school I was selected as president of the club. Being a part of this club not only as a member but also as the president reflects my leadership ability and skills. At our school, our teacher who runs the club made us run for the position as if it were an actual presidential election. Being president of the club and having to run for the spot reflects my ability to go out of my shell and try something new, alongside my ability to talk to people and lead them.

Wrestling Sectional Duals Winners: 9th, 10th, 11th grade

• Every year our high school hosts a Sectional Dual competition right before the State competition for wrestling. The Sectional Dual is a team event in wrestling despite the individuality of the sport. Schools that are invited match up their kids with kids from a different school corresponding to their weight class. Competing on the mat like an individual tournament to rack up points for their teams. Out of the eleven schools that showed up including our team, we won the sectional duals. We showed our dominance on the mat as well as our humility and good sportsmanship off the mat.

Recreational Team and School Soccer: 9th, 10th grade

• I am naturally an athletic person and being able to play one of the most competitive and popular sports in the world is an honor. Soccer is in the running for being one of, if not, the most competitive sports in the world due to the number of stamina, endurance, coordination, and teamwork it requires. I have been involved in soccer my whole life however I joined the local recreational team the summer after 8th grade. Afterward, I played junior varsity soccer for my school at Madison Central High School. I was an exceptionally versatile player, meaning I could play almost any position on the pitch; however, I mainly played midfielder and right wing with the occasional switch to striker. Playing the game of Soccer is only half of the equation though, being in sync with your team, communicating, and being a team player are just as valuable if not more. Making sacrifices for yourself so that your teammates can make a goal, or an advance is what’s important. Sacrificing yourself so that those you care about can prevail is what I learned from Soccer. This set of ideals is what I apply to myself today. The team taught me to be selfless and what it means to be committed to something.

Madison Central High School Wrestling Team: 9th, 10th, 11th grade

• Being a naturally athletic and competitive person, I came to wrestling with open arms. Wrestling is most definitely the hardest sport in the world. Having an abundance of cardio and endurance is an understatement, wrestlers not only have to have cardio, but they need to be able to stay calm under pressure. Managing your nerves on the mat is vital because if you start freaking out, you’re going to be caught off guard and taken to the mat. Not to mention the amount of mental toughness you need. Wrestling is a very physical sport, but you need to be mentally tough to do it. You need to learn how to suffer when you’re wrestling, you’re going to feel pain like never before. You’ll feel exhausted from scrambling your opponent, plus the amount of pain your body endures during each match. From getting your neck snapped down to the mat to getting lifted three feet off the ground just to be slammed back down again. Endure is the keyword to wrestling. Having to endure pain, exhaustion, and nervous feelings, your mind must be a mental fortress. This being said I’ve wrestled every year I’ve been in high school, and I’ve loved every minute. When the season is in session we train for about two hours, five days a week. I’ve dedicated an abundance of time to wrestling and I’m grateful for it. When I was a freshman, I had no idea what I was signing up for, literally, I didn’t know anything about wrestling but I’m so glad that I signed up for it. Wrestling has not only helped me become physically more athletic, but it has also created a phenomenal mindset. The mindset of, even though you’re down, you’re in pain you endure and get the job done. I say this is a phenomenal mindset because it can be applied anywhere in life. There’s a vast number of people in the world who quit too quickly. They give up on whatever when it gets too hard. That is not me. I couldn’t be farther from a quitter, when I have a goal in mind, I do everything in my human ability to get it done. If the job at hand is challenging, I take pride in getting it done. The harder the task is, the more it makes me want to do it. Wrestling builds character, and for me, it’s built me up into a better man.

Weightlifting: 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th grade

• Weightlifting is the sport of self-betterment. Weightlifting is exactly what it sounds like, lifting heavy weights in a motion focused on a certain muscle group to build strength and mass. Weightlifting isn’t your typical sport though, there is no set goal or objective, and you don’t face anyone or any other team. Instead, when you’re weightlifting, you are your opponent. You are in the gym to improve yourself; no one forces you to, and you must take the initiative to make yourself better. Most people would consider weightlifting to be a once-a-week type of deal just to lose a pound or two. For others, (like myself included) it’s a lifestyle. Training consistently to hit a certain weight on any particular motion like bench press or back squats, or to lose or gain weight. But weightlifting isn’t just that to me, it’s something more. Most people would say it’s stupid or ridiculous, but I love weightlifting. I first started weightlifting during my freshman year for football. Long story short, I was going to play football, so they put all the players in one weightlifting class to train together every morning. I was going to play football, but my mom pulled me out at the last second and I was stuck in the weightlifting class. Which I wasn’t even mad about, (when I was a kid, I trained a little bit with my dad and loved it). When I started this class, it completely changed how I viewed weightlifting. We started to do real exercises, we’d bench press, run, and back squat all together in the true sense of camaraderie. Flash forward to now, I’m a junior in high school, I’m bigger, more knowledgeable of exercises and effective movements, and I’ve been weightlifting consistently for the past three years. I love it, I’ve been weightlifting for so long now that it’s just a part of me. No joke, sometimes if I can’t weightlift for a couple of days or up to a week my body starts to hurt. Weightlifting transcended from just being a sport to becoming a part of my life as a lifestyle. I consistently exercise six days a week, waking up at four thirty every morning to train for about an hour and a half then go to school. It’s hard having to wake up so early every morning just to exercise before school, but for me, it is what it is.

Lacrosse: 11th, 12th grade

• Lacrosse is a new sport I picked up last year. I had never played before, and didn’t even know it existed until my best friend's dad told me about it. The sport is similar to soccer, hockey, and field hockey. It is a physical contact sport where the objective, similar to hockey or soccer, is to get the ball into the opponent’s goal. There are several different things that set lacrosse aside from the other sports it is similar to, but my favorite thing about lacrosse was that I got to play it with my best friend. My best friend’s dad was making a county lacrosse team and he wanted me to play for it; doing so he tricked my best friend, his son, into playing with me. I had a blast playing this sport. I never got to play a sport where you wear a helmet and pads, so playing lacrosse and tackling people was a ton of fun for me. Our team was small and short-handed so we didn’t manage to win very many games considering all the other teams we played against had rosters of forty plus players. But because our team was so small, we were all friends with each other and had a ton of fun playing together each practice and game. It felt more like a little family than a huge team. We only won one game last season with a grand total win-loss ratio of 1-20, but nevertheless I had a ton of fun playing and can’t wait to play it again this year.

Recreational Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu: 10th grade

• Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is a martial art focused on fighting on the ground, especially on your back. In Jiu-Jitsu you learn mainly how to fight from standing to the ground. In Wrestling you learn how to take people down; you learn every in and out of how people fall, and you land on top of them to score a takedown and hopefully a pin. However, Jiu-Jitsu takes it one step further. Jiu-Jitsu is learning how to fight your opponent when you’re in a dominant and non-dominant position on the ground. The bread and butter of Jiu-Jitsu is submissions. How can I make my opponent tap out? The objective in Jiu-Jitsu is to use every body part your opponent gives you to tap them out with. From chokes to arm locks, leg locks, wrist locks, and even ankle locks. Jiu-Jitsu is a beautiful martial art because it’s based around self-defense. If someone hits you in the street and you fall on your back, how are you going to take out your aggressor? The art is designed for anybody, it’s not about size or strength it’s about pure technique. I can honestly say that from my time practicing. I’ve seen in person a woman shorter than 5 '10 be able to take down and submit a man who's 6' 2 in less than a minute. I started doing Jiu-Jitsu the summer of my freshman year and fell in love. I picked up Jiu-Jitsu because it’s one of the most popular types of grappling in the world. Considering I’m a wrestler at heart, I had to be able to do some type of grappling while school was out. Although I haven’t competed in any competitions for Jiu-Jitsu yet, I still practice every summer, all summer until wrestling season starts again. Amazingly, Jiu-Jitsu is like wrestling in terms of mentality and mindset. For Wrestling especially, you need to be mentally tough, for Jiu-Jitsu it’s the same thing. Instead of worrying about being gassed out, you have to worry about being choked out or seriously injured. In Jiu-Jitsu you learn how to get out of bad positions and to put people into really bad positions. You must learn to be comfortable in the most uncomfortable positions. For example, I’ve been choked out too many times to count. But the key is how long it took to choke me out. I’m a tough opponent and it’s hard to knock me out just because I can be in uncomfortable positions for a long time. I’ve been conditioned in that field thanks to wrestling.

National Honors Society: 10th, 11th, 12th grade

• The National Honors Society is a prestigious program/club at my school. Established in 1921, the National Honors Society recognizes students who have demonstrated excellence in the areas of scholarship, leadership, service, and character. The purpose of the organization is to encourage its members to excel in academics, develop leadership skills, be of service to the community, and set a positive example for others to follow. Each year NHS plans and implements a variety of community service projects. Past projects have included: Shop with a Cop, MCHS Campus Clean-Up, Adopt a Highway, Embrace Book, Christmas Angels, Earth Day Celebration, Pulsera Project, and Sock-Tober. These service projects typically benefit members of our school and community. For example, last year’s final service project was making and delivering testing goodie bags for Daniel Boone Elementary students participating in state testing. Essentially our club is centered around leadership, community, and service. I’ve been a member since sophomore year, considering that’s the earliest you can join the club. However, I’d like to make note that I was invited to this club. I honestly had no idea it even existed until I was invited. When I learned about the club, I instantly knew NHS was the place I needed to be in. I love helping out in my community and being able to do little things that count in big ways. Especially last year when we made the goodie bags for the elementary school kids, the smiles on their faces when we gave them were pure bliss for me. NHS is a great program that I’m honored to be a part of.

Central In Action: 11th grade

• Central In Action (CIA) is a student-led club focusing on making Madison Central a healthier environment. Through service learning, our club establishes positive relationships with fellow students, faculty, and members of our community. We organize different events at our school including Red Ribbon Day and National Kindness Day. We also encourage all members to go through the Green Dot training program, which is an anti-bullying campaign designed to change the way students at our school act and treat each other for the better. I have participated in the Green Dot training program alongside the National Kindness Day event. For the people who signed up for Green Dot, we had to go through a seven-hour program teaching us about what to do if we see someone who’s in need. What to do if we see someone being picked on, or if someone just looks down, our job as “green dots” is to just check in and ask if they’re doing alright. I am proud to say that I am an involved green dot at our school. Alongside that, for National Kindness Day we got to go around school and give people stickers, bracelets, and sunglasses all saying kind things on them. Doing little things like that is really important to me. Seeing that not everyone who goes through high school has a great time, it’s important to just check in on people and see how they’re doing because you have no idea what people go through outside of school. They may be going through a tough time and just saying “Hey how are you” can pick them up and help them.

PEP Club: 11th grade

• The PEP Club is a club at our school centered around school spirit. We are in charge of coming up with themes for the school’s sporting events, alongside other events like the Fall Ball and Homecoming. For example, for each of our football games, we have an ongoing theme in the student section such as Paint Wars, “Pink Out!”, MERICA, Western Cowboy, and Duck Dynasty Rednecks. Depending on the theme students dress up to show up and show out for their school spirit. For other events like our Fall Ball and Homecoming dances, the PEP club oversees finding venues, food and drink, music and a DJ, and finding chaperones for the dance. So, for big events like that the PEP club has a lot of responsibility. Especially at football games where kids get way too crazy, the PEP club is responsible for preventing fights, stopping any kind of vandalism, and throwing trash on the field. I have participated in our school’s Paint War theme for our homecoming game. I enjoy this particular club because I believe in supporting all of the school sporting events and student-athletes who have worked so hard throughout the year. This organization has helped me to promote pride in our school and all the students that attend.

TSA (Technology Student Association): 11th grade

• The TSA is a national Career and Technical Student Organization made up of students engaged in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Through TSA students/members go through the club learning about different careers in engineering, mathematics, IT, and computer science. One of the main things we do in TSA is compete, we go to competitions all over the state to compete in STEM activities. Such as designing a stable bridge made of popsicle sticks, or creating a boat made of PVC piping. Aside from competing, as President of the TSA, my job is to raise money for the club through different fundraising ideas. Another part of my job is to lead the club in weekly meetings, alongside setting dates for competitions and organizing the competitions. Usually, competitions are held far from Richmond, so I have to find room and board, food, and transportation all within the budget of the club. Fundraising and budgeting are a big part of the job because without money we can’t enter into competitions or travel. So, there is a lot of responsibility that comes with being president. My favorite part of being president however is working with my members as a team, getting the opportunity to lead them through events and competitions is an honor and a blessing.

Youth Ambassador’s Leadership Program: 11th grade

• The Youth Ambassadors Program is a statewide leadership program built on mutual understanding, respect, and civic engagement among young Americans and their international peers. I learned about this program going to one of the annual service academy days in my congressional district. I went to the academy day because I wanted and still do want to go to either the Naval Academy or the Air Force Academy. I met Andy Barr at this event, and he told my parents and me about the Youth Ambassador’s Leadership Program. The program itself isn’t very big as four counties in my district were invited and maybe twenty students showed up. During the program, we met and spoke with local leaders in business, entrepreneurship, non-profit, and even the local Fire Department. We even got to meet with an Air Force Colonel who told us a little bit about the service academies. They told us about their experiences in the real world and what it means to be a leader. Being a leader means having to watch over a group of people and be responsible for them. Putting others in front of yourself for the greater good and having to make sacrifices. We learned what it means to be a leader, and since I and only one other student from my school are Youth Ambassadors, we have to set an example for my school. I love being a leader and I love to lead people. I take pride in the ability to communicate and lead people through whatever they’re going through, and not only to lead others but to listen when required. Being a leader means also being a good listener. Listening to the problems at hand and working with others trying to solve them. I was blessed to learn about the Youth Leadership program, and I am so glad that I’m a part of it.

Campaigning Networking Coordinator: 10th grade

• My mom ran for state senate in 2022, during which my sisters and I oversaw networking. Well really, I was in charge of networking, and they were just there to help. Our job was to call potential voters in our district to see if they were going to vote in the upcoming election. If they weren’t going to vote we were supposed to convince them to vote in the next election and to vote for our mom. I oversaw getting the call lists and telling my sisters how many people to call on certain days. We all did our part; however, I also had to make several calls. The goal I set was for us to call at least four people every day after school to help our mom. Not only did we have to call all these different people in our community we had to talk to them about politics, which can be a very touchy subject with some people. But thankfully we never ran into anyone rude. Talking with strangers on the phone, especially about such a thing as politics, built up my speaking skills from mediocre to exemplary. Through this experience, I learned how to talk to people. Each phone call with a new person was an opportunity to sharpen my skills and become a more fluent speaker. I’m thankful that I got the chance to campaign with my mom and help her out. In the end, my mom’s campaigning team, including my sisters and I, reached out to over fifteen hundred people in our district.