What made you want to be involved in music at school?

I feel like I’ve always been involved in music, so it just feels so natural to join the school orchestra and then do marching band because it’s such a big thing at our school. I was like, ‘I played the clarinet in middle school, so I might as well sign myself up for the band and see where it goes.’ It was never a goal for me to be in all the ensembles; it just happened. It’s nice.

How does this activity play into your goals for the future, or are they just for fun?

I definitely want to do something music-y in college, not as my major or anything. Like a club or something, like orchestra or band. Or maybe I’ll go off and try and conducting or composing, it’s just it’s fun, you know? Just do something fun, see where it goes.

Are you in a leadership role for this activity? If so, how has being in leadership for this activity helped you grow over the years?

Some people take that job really seriously, I do it, because it’s my senior year. It’s kind of my job to sometimes mark down fingerings or bowings so that other people can follow the music. I think people just look at me when they’re lost and hopefully I know what I’m doing. If the orchestra ever gets off beat, it’s kind of on me to keep the section together and always follow Mr. Pignataro so that other people can look at me and be like and follow along.

What advice would you give to students who are interested in music at the school but are unsure whether to try it?

It just takes a lot of time, you know. You have to show up sometimes, and you’ve got to practice. You don’t get good just by hoping you get good. The most important thing is just having fun. It’s like working out, you know, you can’t stop working out for a week and expect to get results, but you just have to keep doing it, and if it’s fun for you, then it’s really easy, but if it’s not, it’s terrible.

What made you want to be involved in bocce at the school? 

Unified Bocce was the best thing I have done. I’ve done bocce for four years.

What is fun about Unified Bocce?

You can hang out with some friends, make some new friends, and my coach this year is Ms. Holt. I like doing it because I can hang out with my friends.

How has playing Bocce helped you grow?

Now that I’m older, it’s a part of me. It’s a lot of fun.

What advice would you give to students who are interested in an activity here at the school but are unsure whether to try it?

Everyone should play bocce, sign up and make some new friends, and have some fun.

What made you want to be involved in sewing at school? 

I’ve been sewing since I was in second grade. My grandma introduced me to it, and she helped me make my first few quotes and I ended up taking the sewing class. I became pretty close with Ms. Frances Schoonover through the clothing class and the interior architecture class, which I took before sewing. That’s what led her to asking me to make the class flag because it’s less sewing and more quilting.

How does this activity play into your goals for the future, or are they just for fun?

It’s mostly just for fun, but I hope to continue doing it because I like sleeping under my quilts at night. They’re warm and heavy. Making clothing is also a really useful skill, because I can make my own clothes and I can fix them as I need to.

Are you in a leadership role for this activity? If so, how has being in leadership for this activity helped you grow over the years?

I don’t think I’ve taken on any leadership roles through this, but it [sewing] has taught me some skills. I’ve learned lots of new techniques on how to piece things together because traditionally, to make a quilt, you put all the fabric, stack it, run it through the machine, and then you cut it, stack it and run it through the machine until you’ve pieced together all sorts of blocks.

Making clothing is similar, but it’s 3D, so it was a little bit of a learning curve to get there. Then with the class flag, it was a little bit of both, almost, because while it’s a flat piece, it’s so big and it’s not patchwork like quilt is. You have to iron down the pieces and then sew them onto the bigger overall flag and that’s really hard to work through with the small sewing machines. So you’re folding and rolling and tucking and making sure you don’t get anything caught under the machine as you try to piece it down.

What advice would you give to students who are interested in an activity here at the school but are unsure whether to try it?

If you’re even slightly interested, I would say just go for it because the worst that happens is you don’t like it, but you’ll at least get some sort of new skill out of it, whether it’s whatever you intended to learn through it or just being able to persevere through something you don’t like.