TONTOGANY — Abigail Eiben is leaving her small hometown for the big city.

The Otsego High School senior will attend Ohio State University after she graduates this month.

Eiben said she is excited to attend school in a bigger city.

“While I loved living here and getting to know everyone, I’m really excited to go to a school in the city so I can have a whole different range of opportunities and experiences,” Eiben said.

Eiben has taken advantage of her opportunities during high school.

She was president of Otsego’s National Honor Society,president of FFA and spent eight years being a part of 4-H.

Eiben was also all-academic for golf with a 4.0 GPA and received a Spirit of Leadership award.

All of her extracurricular activities have taught her life skills that will help her succeed in the future.

“A lot of the activities I was involved in relied heavily on learning about communication skills and interview skills. Those skills are going to serve me well in the future,” Eiben said.

Some other opportunities helped her decide what she wants to do in the future.

Eiben attended Buckeye Girls State last summer and was a State Attorney General Teen Ambassador.

During her time at each event, she said she talked to people who worked for the attorney general, people who worked at the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the head of the human trafficking initiative.

After having those conversations and learning about state government, Eiben made the firm decision to study political science after high school.

She said she always had an interest in government, but that interest became a passion after learning more about state government.

Eiben also said she is set on going to law school. Right now, her main goal is to either work as a prosecuting attorney or work on civil rights issues.

Those plans could change after college. She said there are a lot of ways to be involved in political science.

“There’s a lot of different paths you can take with it. There’s a lot of opportunities after you graduate,” Eiben said.

Eiben said the main issues she wants to tackle in the future are gender-based violence against women and gun violence.

Overall, Eiben wants to help people. She said her parents taught her to be kind to everyone and stand up for anything that matters.

Those lessons guided her towards political science. She said when thinking about a future career, she kept her parent’s message in her mind.

“My main goal is to stand up for other people. I feel lucky that I am able to attend college and get a degree,” Eiben said. “I want to take advantage of it the most I can to help other people.”