My name is Ryan Dillon, and I am currently a senior at MAMS (Massachusetts Academy of Math and Science). I previously attended Wachusett Regional High School (WRHS) in Holden. At Wachusett, I participated in several extracurriculars, including the varsity math team, as well as playing the flute in the Wachusett Wind Ensemble, which is the honors band. The Wind Ensemble performs at a variety of events, including the quarterly concerts, the varsity football games, pep rallies, and the Special Olympics. Additionally, I also volunteered as a CIT at Wachusett's SPeC during the summer between freshman and sophomore year. SPeC is a two week long summer camp for incoming freshman that prepares them to take the Honors Freshman Physics course, and also to complete the yearlong project that is required of all honors science students at WRHS. One of the most exciting times at Wachusett was the Spirit Week leading up to homecoming. Below, there's a picture of my cousins Shea, Devan, Kalli, and I on the first day of my sophomore year at WRHS in August 2018.

I live with my mom and dad, my brother Luke, who is 15, and my sister Bryn, who is 13. Luke is a sophomore at Bay Path Regional Vocational Technical High School, and Bryn attends Central Tree Middle School. We have a bullmastiff named Daisy, who we've had since I was 7. During the summer, my family and I usually take a trip to Cape Cod every summer, and it's always one of the most relaxing and fun weeks of the summer break. We go to the beach a lot, and spend time visiting relatives that live there. To the left, there's a picture of my brother and I at Putter's Paradise, which is our favorite mini-golfing place to visit. Check out their website here. We also live on a street with all of my relatives from my dad's side, including all my aunts, uncles, and cousins. We all grew up very close to each other, and sometimes it feels like I have 10 extra siblings.

I have danced competitively for the past 10 years, the past 5 of which have been spent at Greendale Dance Academy in Worcester. Additionally, I also assistant teach classes for the younger kids, usually in recreational classes. You can find their website here. I have done a lot of styles, but currently I take classes in ballet, jazz, lyrical, contemporary, and tap. The regular/competition season usually runs from September to early June, and I also have additional classes during the summer months. At competitions, we perform our dances for a panel of judges, who then award us points. At the awards ceremonies, dances are given adjudicated awards as well as overall awards, which rank the dances 1st in their category, 2nd, 3rd, etc. Below are several pictures from my lyrical dance, "Surrender," which we competed in spring 2019. At this particular competition, the dance placed 2nd overall in its category. You can also see a video of my tap dance, "Sing," that we competed in the 2018-2019 competition year at the link here.

Along with competition team, I participate in several extracurriculars at Mass Academy. During A Term in 2019, I attended the actuarial math course, which teaches us some of the math that an actuary uses to calculate values of loans and also the financial consequences of risk. I am also a member of the MAMS math team, and I play disc golf on Friday afternoons, which is a really fun opportunity to get outside and have some fun after school. Jackie, Maria, Annalisa, Liv, and I are pictured below, just after our first disc golf outing in September 2019.

During B Term, I participated in Arduinos, which teaches us how to program tools that help read and collect data. During both B and C Term, I was still a member of the math team, and participated in CyberPatriot on a team with Liv, Maria, Hazelyn, and Annalisa. CyberPatriot is a competition where you and your team have 6 hours to secure the network of a small company by finding and getting rid of possible weaknesses and/or viruses.