Austin Scholar #168: How to use AI in your kid's summer (Part 2)
& a declassified high school survival guide
Hey, y'all!
This week from Austin Scholar...
Austin’s Anecdote: A declassified high school survival guide
How to use AI in your kid's summer (Part 2)
Before we get started this week, I just want to say congrats to Alpha High’s 2025 graduating class!! I couldn’t be more proud of these graduates (many of whom are my close friends). They’ve put in so much work both on their own projects and on improving the Alpha system and making it the best school in the country. I’m so proud of the amazing people I get to call my fellow alumni.
In other news, I’m now studying for finals! I have both a math and a CS exam, as well as presentations in German and my sports analytics class. I’m super excited to do a deep-dive newsletter soon on my Stanford classes (particularly CS), with both my thoughts on the classes themselves and how Alpha prepared me to succeed in these classes, so stay tuned :)
Austin’s Anecdote: A declassified high school survival guide
This week’s anecdote is written by an extremely special guest: the valedictorian of this year’s graduating class of Alpha High! I’ll just let her introduce herself:
Hi y'all! I’m Clara Aboel-Nil and I just graduated from Alpha High. During my four years at Alpha I have worked on many projects.
Some highlights being: I developed an Al health coach based on users' genetics, launched a biotech newsletter (though I'll admit, The Austin Scholar had me beat there), and created TeachTap-an Al-powered app using TikTok-style videos to help students prep for APs and the SAT. TeachTap now has over 120,000 users, which I'm super proud of.
Content creation has been my most recent pursuit, and I’ve been working on it in a couple different ways.
On TikTok, I run @acebot.ai, where I teach math in online “brain rot" to over 60,000 followers. On YouTube, my channel @hush_celebs racks up over 7 million views per month on shorts about celebrity news. And I've just launched a new YouTube channel, @Clara_Nil, where I share vlogs and personal stories.
I’m always looking for new people to meet and connections to make so if any of what I said interests you, feel free to reach out!
I wanted to celebrate Clara and her accomplishments and include excerpts from her graduation speech (which made my mom cry) that perfectly encapsulated this class’ journey at Alpha. Here’s what she said:
Welcome to Clara’s declassified high school survival guide: 4 steps to surviving at the craziest school in the world.
Step 1) Just do it.
I have a confession: My freshman year, I was a chronic procrastinator. And when I was taking APs, working on a Masterpiece (an extremely ambitious, seemingly-impossible four-year project), and making new friends, one brutal truth hit me hard: you have to do the work.
I signed up for AP Bio, thinking I had science in the bag. Spoiler alert: I didn't. I wasn't practicing the tough stuff, and sometimes I wasn’t practicing at all.
And then, in the sweltering heat of June, College Board hit me with a soul-crushing 4. Not academically catastrophic. But humbling. Because I didn’t fail the test – I failed to prepare.
That’s when I learned the first rule of survival: just do it. Not when it's convenient, not just when inspiration strikes, but every day. Do Olympians wait until the Olympics to train? No. They train every day of their lives so that when the time finally comes, all they have to do is show up.
Step 2) BYOB (but not in the way you’re thinking).
When you are picking a masterpiece, one of our fundamental principles is being an expert. To be an expert, you have to read the good, the bad, and the bewildering. And then? You take a stand. You don’t just need ideas – you need conviction.
When you’re at a school where arguments are blood sport and every lunch table feels like being interrogated, you'd better believe in your thesis. Because someone will challenge it – and probably cite three sources while they do it. So, BYOB. Or, bring your own backbone.
Make sure you truly believe in your Masterpiece project and are willing to argue for it, because if you don’t believe in yourself, then how do you expect the rest of the world to? But backbone isn’t enough when life throws you a curveball, which leads me to step three.
Step 3) Adapt or perish.
You’ve heard it before, “survival of the fittest,” but here’s something Darwin didn’t tell you. The fittest aren’t the strongest, they’re the most adaptable. And when you’re at a school of entrepreneurial Olympians, your brain better be training every day. Maybe you get ghosted on the Slack channel.
Maybe you discover negative XP on Math Academy for the first time. Maybe, just maybe, the wifi goes out for the third time in one day. Don’t panic. Pivot. The people who succeed aren’t the ones who never fail. They’re the ones who fall down seven times and get up eight. Be the one who doesn’t waste time wondering “why me?” but asks “what’s next?”
And finally, step 4) Savor the summit.
You walked up the mountain. You went through all four years, took those CBEs, retook those CBEs, got the credits, and are finally ready to walk across the stage. But you can’t appreciate the view from the top without appreciating what it took to get there. I couldn’t have asked for a better group of brilliant friends and mentors to call my family, and even though I’ll physically be in Boston, home is where the heart is. And I say Alpha will always be a home for me. So take a second, look around, appreciate your fellow climbers, and then set your sights back on the top.
So that's it – Clara’s declassified high school survival guide. With these four foolproof steps, I can guarantee that you will successfully make it through all four years at Alpha.
Because surviving Alpha High wasn’t about being the smartest in the room. It was about showing up when it was hard. Standing your ground when it would’ve been easier to fold. Learning to bend without breaking. And remembering to pause long enough to see the beauty in the chaos.
And if all else fails, ask ChatGPT.
How to use AI in your kid's summer (Part 2)
I got great feedback on last week’s newsletter and had a lot of parents asking me for additional AI summer project ideas, so that’s what I’m going to talk about again today!
I have a ton more ideas for using AI this summer. Whether your kids are into athletics, gaming, programming, music, cooking, sports, storytelling, or pretty much anything else, there should be ideas here for everyone. You can use these ideas outright, or modify them to fit your kids’ specific interests!