CLASS OF 2016

My life at Woodlawn is central to my identity, and I wouldn’t be the same had it not been for this small community where teachers and classmates become a second family. Woodlawn is unique. Where else would you find students playing basketball in a gym designed to look like a traditional red barn or see middle schoolers studying about plants in the campus gardens? As students and teachers we are athletes, artists, musicians, and much more. Sometimes a bit quirky - one friend created a business designing bow ties and a favorite teacher, a former Apple executive, enjoys flying his drone around campus.

At a small school, with ten seniors, there’s no place for exclusion. We support each other and embrace our differences. It’s amazing what you can do in a small, hands-on community that encourages creativity and individuality. Performing a Frozen dance and music number in front of the entire school, creating a PSA on mental health issues, or playing a sport you've never played before — these are the types of things that have given me confidence and determination. I have no hesitation or fear of being myself and shooting for my goals. Being the only girl on the varsity cross country team? No problem! Winning the soccer state championship by beating the undefeated, number one seed? We got this! Woodlawn gave me that belief and conviction, and provided me with the desire to go beyond expectations.

Taylor is currently a junior at Rice University.

My name is Ariana Hoshino, and I am a junior at Woodlawn. I came to Woodlawn in 7th grade, worried about losing all my friends and the familiarity that came with my old school, but I immediately felt at home. The teachers focused on me as an individual and the students were welcoming and inclusive.

Reflecting on my experience at Woodlawn, there are three main points that come to mind: students support fellow students, teachers support students, and students learn how to support themselves.

When I say students support their fellow students, I am referring to the way Woodlawn students work together, learning how to combine their collective strengths so that they form a better team. I am referring to the helping nature of classmates; helping their classmates understand a topic rather than simply providing answers. Students truly care about other students.

Our teachers support the students by being personally involved in their lives — from asking us about our opinions on Walking Dead every Monday to catapulting students into a passion they might not have ever known existed in themselves. For me, that passion is filmmaking. When I was a freshman, I took a “Medicine in Movies” elective, where a group of girls and I made a PSA about mental health stigmas. The film eventually found its way to the Woodstock film festival where it was recognized and awarded. None of us could have ever imagined we could make such a difference in the area of mental health. But we did.

Although film is my main passion, I can’t ignore all of my other interests I have been able to explore and pursue — photography for the yearbook, competing on the varsity swimming team, designing our 2014 homecoming t-shirt, being the president of the UK in intermezzo of fall 2014, and making elephant toothpaste out of dish soap, sodium chloride, and hydrogen peroxide in chemistry class — these are all just small parts of the sorts of things that have sparked my interests.

And that all leads me to the most important part of Woodlawn: I’ve learned how to support myself. I know what my strengths, weaknesses, likes and dislikes are, and where I want to go and what I want to do after I leave this beautiful campus and venture out into the daunting “real world.” There is so much to do, so much to see, so much to learn, and so many opportunities to take. And Woodlawn has showed me how to replace the fear with excitement!

If so many wonderful things have happened so far, I can’t imagine what my senior year has to offer. I guess I have no option but to take it by storm. Watch out Woodlawn, here I come!

Ariana is currently a senior at Swarthmore College.