Campbell Senior Looks Back on High School and Ahead to Princeton

SMYRNA — Molly Ziskind is set to graduate from Campbell High School Saturday. But she won’t be there to walk the stage.

Instead, Ziskind — a student in the International Baccalaureate (IB) program, leader of the school’s debate team and soon-to-be freshman at Princeton University — will be volunteering at a camp for underprivileged youth in north Georgia.

“I ultimately decided I would feel guilty if I couldn’t go (to camp) again, because it means so much to me. This will be my last year having a big role in it,” Ziskind said.

She first became involved in Camp Jenny when she was a sophomore. At that time, the organization was raising roughly $3,000 a year for the camp.

But each year that Ziskind has taken on greater responsibility, the funds have poured in more generously. In the last three years, she’s organized fundraisers that have brought in over $20,000.

Though she’s got plenty to be proud of, Ziskind is known for her humility.

“Having taught for 28 years, she is really special,” Melyn Roberson, Ziskind’s IB Spanish teacher said. “... She’s very kind, considerate, giving, generous and incredibly humble.”

That modesty extends to her success in studies — she earned a 4.797 GPA while taking IB classes — as well as her involvement in the youth service group at her synagogue, Temple Beth Tikvah, and her leadership on the debate team, which has grown four-fold and garnered several awards under her leadership.

“When she started, it was maybe ten people and during the pandemic. … Now they have over 40. She took it from nothing, but with her kind, soft, approachable demeanor she was able to garner a lot of support and interest for debate,” Roberson said.

Ziskind said while she doesn’t want to study political science, law or other fields often associated with debate, the skills she learned will undoubtedly help her in her studies and future career.

She plans to major in operations research and financial engineering at Princeton, which will pave the way for a career in consulting or investment banking.

“When I first saw (the major), I thought if I could create a major for myself, it would be this,” Ziskind said.

That course of study was the reason she chose to apply to Princeton with restrictive early action — meaning she couldn’t apply to any other private college’s early decision programs.

Ziskind said she was shocked when she received her acceptance, and hadn’t even told many of her friends that she had applied.

“I didn’t tell a lot of my friends because I was thinking, ‘Why should I tell them if I’m not even going to get in?’” she said. “... I’m still kind of in disbelief.”

Upon her acceptance, she ran up the stairs to tell her mom, Shana Ziskind, the good news.

“We immediately started crying and she hugged me,” Ziskind said.

The pair will celebrate with a two-week trip to Spain and Portugal this summer, stopping in Barcelona, Madrid and Lisbon. There, Ziskind hopes to be able to put her years of Spanish education to the test.

After her jaunt abroad, it’ll be just a few weeks before she ships off to New Jersey for the next four years.

Ziskind, who has been dancing since she was three years old, wrote her main college essay about a freestyle hip-hop competition she had participated in several times over her dance career.

For many years, Ziskind said, she stood in the back and tried not to be noticed. But a few years ago, she decided to step into the spotlight.

“The song they played said, ‘Music makes you lose control.’ So I thought to myself, just calm down, listen to the music and I remember I didn’t really have to think, I just danced,” she said.

She knows Princeton will be challenging, both academically and socially, as she’ll be hundreds of miles away from family and friends. She may be tempted to slip into the back of the crowd once again, like she did in so many competitions.

But now, she believes those days are behind her.

“I’ve gotten to know who I am and feel confident in my own skin and (found) my voice,” she said. “... Taking risks and taking initiative is going to be much more rewarding.”