Welcome to Mayor's Top Teens.

I'm Liz Liano, and today we're going to be talking to Samantha Brasher.

Hi, Samantha welcome and congratulations for being a Mayor's Top Teen.

Thank you so much for having me.

Yeah, absolutely.

It's great to have you here.

So, like to hear a little bit about some of the activities and things that you've been up to.

So what are the things that you do at, at your high school?

So at Las Cruces High School, I play, basketball.

I've been playing for four years now.

We actually just had our last game.

It was, it was really a bittersweet moment for me but, it was really fun experience.

I also, I participate in our school's, science club, MESA, and I've been the president for two years.

We do like weekly meetings and participate in lots of, like, STEM related activities.

And then we also go to statewide competitions.

So last weekend I was just in, Albuquerque for, our MESA, our science olympiad competition.

And that was really fun experience.

I placed in, three categories.

So it was really fun.

I also do French Honor Society and National Honor Society, at Las Cruces High School.

And I do lots of community service, and, yeah.

That's wonderful.

That's quite a list.

So you said you compete with the Science Olympiad?

Yes.

So what is competing with that look like?

So there's basically a bunch of different, topics that you can compete in.

I did like remote sensing, for example.

And you just go in there and you take a test and they'll place you, yeah, it's it's really fun.

And then as a team, we get placed as well.

So a lot of STEM related activities such as that.

That sounds really cool.

And what do you do in the French Honor Society?

I promote like, love for French language and culture.

So we recently had, like a crêpe fundraiser where we made crêpes and we sold them.

And we've gone around to visit like schools and promote just love for different cultures.

Very nice.

And you said you also, do some community service.

Yeah I do.

I like, during like the holidays I like making like Christmas cards for hospitals, and I've.

I do like a toy drive with MESA every year and we donate to Jardin de los Ninos.

Very nice.

And how long have you been doing that?

Four years.

Four years?

Yes.

Your whole high school?

Yes.

Wonderful.

And, how do you plan on continuing community service when you leave high school?

I hope to keep helping out like those in my community.

Or if I end up moving away, I'll try and find, like, a group that I can that I can help out.

I like working at my mom's school, just helping, kids, like, learn.

It's really, an eye opening experience working with, like, a younger generation, I guess.

That's sweet.

You said if you move away.

So where do you plan on going to school?

I'm still considering my options.

I haven't really decided yet.

Maybe Colorado somewhere, but I don't want to move too far.

You want to stay close?

I do.

For your family?

Yeah, for my family and my friends.

I'm scared of leaving.

Oh, well, I'm sure we'll ever wherever you go, have wonderful opportunities.

And what is it that you want to end up studying?

I'm going to go into computer science.

Hopefully with a focus on artificial intelligence.

Oh, interesting.

And what do you what do you hope to do?

I, I've always really loved programing, so I want to keep, keep up with that, and, I, I want to make A. I. safer because I'm worried about, its effects on, like, the human brain also, and how it could deteriorate society.

And I, I want to make sure that that doesn't happen.

Wow, wonderful.

Well, it seems like you have your hands full with a lot of different aspirations.

I wish you all the best, Samantha.

And once again, congratulations on being a Mayor's Top Teen.