Margot Scheider ‘22 is essentially a public influencer of the Friends Select’s Upper School. As the Student Government President, Editor-in-Chief of The Falcon, 3 season captain and MVP, 12 season athlete, co-leader of JSU and Quake, member of the civil discourse team, and a musician, Margot spreads her qualities with many groups of people. 

Her senior softball season just came to a close as she led her team to the state semifinals. Margot has played softball inside and outside of school since the 5th grade. In 8th grade, she found herself playing on four different teams at once; that is when she decided softball was her primary sport. “I have learned to treat sports as a release for energy and time for a mind-break; using that mindset has been a miracle.” As Margot’s skills have become refined and perfected over the years, she notes a lot of the social aspects that come with her athletics: “[sports] require a lot of communication skills, especially being with a lot of the same girls throughout the whole year for years in a row – you have to establish healthy team environments. Also, my closest friends in my grade are not athletes, so softball has been a way for me to connect with the rest of the highschool because my very close teammates are not in my grade”. 

Margot has accomplished a lot in her softball career at FSS. Bill Klose, Athletic Director and Margot’s coach of four years and 8 athletic seasons explains, “Margot has accomplished goals that so few others have accomplished ever at FSS. Joining the 100 hit club and over 100 strikeouts is amazing. Breaking the single season hits and runs records is almost more impressive! Those are accomplishments that no player has done here ever. Her humility throughout these accomplishments allow her teammates to both support her and also be amazed by her.” 

Carl Trainer, one of Margot’s coaches for softball says, “I admire that Margot works extremely hard at perfecting her craft. She puts in the extra time and focuses on the little details when others might overlook them.”

One trait that lots of people admire about Margot, and something she has grown throughout her athletic career, is her leadership. Elena Milliken ’22 has known Margot since kindergarten and has been close friends since middle school. Elena says, “People are drawn to her and listen to her because of her innate power and presence.” 

Margot says playing sports has helped shape what leadership means to her: “Sports has taught me good and bad leadership, I have had excellent role models who I have looked up to, and I have been shown what doesn’t work and what not to do – both are equally as valuable. My leadership style is both my own individual take but also a compilation of a lot of techniques and mannerisms of people I’ve played with.”

Scarlett Schneider ’24 shares a unique perspective as Margot’s sister: “I get to see not only the smart, put together, and radiant version that we all see, but also the funny, relaxed, and hardworking side. I get to see all the work she puts in behind the scenes in becoming the person she is at school.” Scarlett adds the experience she has had being at FSS with her sister: “It’s great to always have her to fall back on at school when I’m having a hard day, or just need someone to listen. I’ll miss her”

Zoe Siegel ’24 first knew Margot as her “best friend’s older sister” but now knows her as a teammate and captain. She admires Margot, saying, “Some of my favorite things about Margot are her positivity and hard-working nature. She balances a lot of schoolwork but still always comes to practice with a smile…We’ll all miss her at The Falcon next year!”

As hinted before, sports isn’t the only area where Margot flourishes. As Student Government President, Margot has worked closely with vice president Nadia Sumner ’22. Nadia says, “Margot is very analytical about how she works through problems and problem-solving. She communicates very clearly her perspective on things and what the goal of each conversation is about. I feel like that is so helpful when leading a group…She’s also really approachable and you can talk to her about anything. I’ve really enjoyed working with her, I feel like we were a good team.”  

Margot’s academic interests are far ranging from the ethics of journalism and political social media to cognitive science, music, and black holes. Late junior year, however, she says she really gravitated towards STEM. “I really loaded up on a lot of STEM classes this year which I knew would be a lot of work, but I didn’t realize just how much work they would be.” One thing she explains is that at a certain point, she hit burnout, “especially with college applications and essays and sports on top of all of that, it was a really bad combo.” Her advice to anyone else who is or may in the future deal with that burnout is to “be reasonable with yourself.” She has had to find ways to balance her different activities: “I generally really enjoy the things I involve myself in so that makes it so much better. I only have a few things I do simply out of obligation; most of the things I am genuinely interested in and passionate about. I try to make things social, with sports especially; in addition for it to be an athletic and competitive time, I’m getting in a social hang out time with friends.” She shares a similar sentiment with her music. She has been in the orchestra for seven years, and this year, she joined Lab Band. She said the decision was spontaneous, but it really helped her through the hard times in the beginning and middle of the year: “Picking up something new that I had no obligation to be good at and just to bang on things for fun was what I needed. And forming funny little inside jokes with the people I do it with makes it feel like it’s not work at all.”

Beyond being an amazing teammate and classmate, Margot is also a great friend. After her rigorous school day, some people are lucky enough to experience what Elena calls, “The Margot Experience.” Elena elaborates, “This usually happens after a late night doing homework or an especially hard game. She turns into the funniest person I’ve ever met with the weirdest sense of humor around. A perfectly normal video can turn into a laughing fit that lasts ages.” 

Margot also turns her activities into a space to have fun. Lucy Rupertus ’23, a close friend and teammate of Margot’s, shares one of her favorite memories with her: “When we performed in Art for Charity together this year, over the course of two weeks we learned the vocals to Canyon Moon by Harry Styles and practiced it with our guitarist, Campbell Lee [‘23]. We all dressed up in Harry Styles themed outfits and had an incredible time.” 

Sofia Solari-Parravicini ‘23 also says that she has had lots of fun being in Lab Band with Margot: “I’m in lab band with Margot and I’ve always been a reserved person. But this year, looking up from my keyboard and seeing Margot either banging on the drums or walking around singing breakup songs has made it be the most fun I have had in music because of her presence. She is also just a great musician and drummer especially since she only started playing this year.” 

Margot is excited to continue her academics at the University of Pennsylvania next year. One thing she definitely intends to do is to continue her athletics at least at the club level. One of her close friends from her travel softball team is also going to Penn, and they will join the club team there. She also may play club field hockey. In addition, she plans to write for The Daily Pennsylvanian. 

Bill remarks on some of Margot’s traits as an athlete: “She will never be described as cocky or conceited, but she is extremely confident in herself, as she should be. She will be the first to tell you that she isn’t the best dancer on the team, but that won’t stop her from dancing in the circle during state semifinal games. She is comfortable being herself and she no longer cares who is watching. If we can all learn something from Margot, I would hope that’s it.”