My name is Karena Peterson, and I am a Junior at Massachusetts Academy of Math and Science. My sending school was Leominster Center for Technical Education and Innovation, in Leominster. I live at home with my three sisters and my dog, Carmel. Here’s a little about me!
Hobbies/ECs:
In my free time, I love to do art. I make it a goal to try as many mediums as possible, including sketching, charcoal, chalk pastels, watercolor, oil, fabric, cardboard, and clay, but I mainly use acrylic paint. I first started in 2020 during the pandemic, driven by boredom. I’ve continued to create since then, and, in my opinion, have gotten a lot better compared to my first works.
I also really love to cook and bake. One of my favorite cookbooks to follow is Justine Snacks, as she creates unique recipes that I haven’t tried before. One of my favorites from her is her lemon ginger blueberry muffins, or her paprika-caramel sweet potato cake (it’s delicious, I promise). I still make the basics, though- macarons being one of my favorites. Additionally, sometimes I cook for Leominster’s local homeless shelter to use my skills for a little bit of good.
Music is a huge part of my life — though more in the passive sense. I’m learning how to play electric guitar, but currently I can only play about three songs. Still, music is extremely important to me. My taste spans across genres — from The Smiths to Nirvana to Big Thief (if you don’t know who they are, here is their Wikipedia). I’m known by my family to have music playing 24/7, if I can help it.
I'm currently a research and marketing intern at a start-up biotech company called Exactics. I help with research and manage their social media. I've been with them for about a year, now.
I played volleyball at my sending school Freshman and Sophomore year on their JV team. I played as a Middle Hitter, mainly because I was notoriously bad at passing (which middle hitters are known for). I’m planning to continue playing this year at a local team, outside of school. I have also been swimming non-competitively since I was seven, but I hope to join an official team later this year. Wish me luck and check back in the spring to see if I’ve made the team!
Most of my summers are spent traveling. It started off small when I was younger— leaving for a camp 20 minutes from where I live. Then I started to go to a camp over an hour away, then to camp states away, and now I travel over counties. I canoed into Canada from Minnesota, went to Hawaii last summer and tried surfing (I wiped out a lot), and traveled to Japan just this past summer (2025)!