Rockets beyond 2:40: Hailey “Meow” expresses her love for cats

McNick is full of over 600 students, each with a unique story and background. The McNicholas Milestone Staff will be featuring personality profiles on many of these students throughout the year. Students are randomly chosen using the letter generator, and then finding students on Schoology using the chosen letters. For this personality profile, the letters aligned with Hailey Lau.

Lau is a junior associated with Service Club. She has been adamant about her service ever since 2012 when she started volunteering at League for Animal Welfare, a no-kill animal shelter located in Batavia, Ohio. Lau enjoys being in company with the cats, and her love for them comes through in this way of service. At the shelter she sprays down the cages and wipes them clean for the animals to have a better environment to live in. She provides care for the animals by just being with them and showing them love and attention. Lau is passionate about the cats at the shelter, and has specific favorites that she comes and visits often. Back at home, Lau has two cats of her own, Duncan and Declan. Her love for these animals inspired her to go out and help those less fortunate in the shelters. “Anyone who knows me knows the obsession I have of my cats. I’ve even been nicknamed Hailey Meow.”

Aside from volunteering, Lau has a passion towards cheerleading as well. Lau has cheered for McNick her past three years; two years on varsity. Before trying out for cheer, Lau was a part of a professional cheerleading team, CIA. This was a traveling team that would compete against other cities throughout Ohio.

Going into freshman year, Lau was faced with the decision of picking one over the other- competitive cheer, or cheering for her high school. She knew she couldn’t do both, and she needed to make a decision.

“I chose McNick cheer over competitive simply because it was so much less stressful. CIA was a part of my life for so long, and I learned so much from them, but I couldn’t commit to competitions every single weekend two or more hours away. Having to wear so much makeup got old after a while, along with the pain of taking out my ponytail after having it cemented to my head from hairspray,” Lau said.