On home…

I’ve lived in Alexandria, Virginia for the last eight years, although I grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas. At home, I live with my mom, my dad, my two older brothers Robert and Jacob, and our adorable french bulldog, Jesse. They’re all pretty introverted, and I tend to be pretty talkative compared to them. We love kayaking or white-water rafting when it's warm out, or spending time trying new board games or watching new movies when it gets colder. 

 

 

 

On Emma…

I knew in seventh grade I really wanted to go to a boarding school after seeing my brother spend hours of his day commuting to high school, and if I wanted to keep doing dance, it would be really difficult to keep doing it. I begged my mom to even consider letting me apply, and after she said yes, she helped me form a list of possible schools. I visited all the schools before I applied to them, with the exception of Emma. I wasn't even sure about an all-girls school; I just honestly thought the traditions and campus sounded really cool, and I decided to apply. After coming to an Envision Emma, I knew this was the right school for me. Everyone I met that day was so nice and warm, and I really saw myself thriving here. No other place I visited matched the genuine excitement I felt from students when I visited, and I truly knew that Emma was right for me when I got on campus. 

Emma is special to me because everyone here truly believes in each other. I’ve never imagined a place where I could feel so uplifted because students and faculty want to see you succeed while giving you the space to grow and learn along the way. Emma can feel like a lot of scary things at once—meeting new people, trying new things, and finding yourself in a very short timeline, but it all works because people genuinely root for you every single day. There is no failure at Emma simply because everyone here sees your work, dedication, and love for who you are.   

 

 

On music…

I am super passionate about music. Music has always been in my life, whether it be dancing along to it or forcing my mom to listen to my favorite songs in the car. I joined a local choir in DC just before the pandemic began, then finished the year, but doing the arts virtually made me honestly lose passion for it because virtual learning made it hard for me to stay on task. I stopped for a few years, but found choir at Emma and haven't looked back. I joined choir freshman year, inner choir my sophomore year, and semi-quavers my junior year, and have loved it all every single day. There's no class I could wake up for at 6:30 AM most mornings other than choir. Being a choir co-head has been the easiest leadership role at Emma because it's the only one that has come naturally—because I love the class and choir members. I actually slept through the first class of choir my freshman year, and it's a good reminder of just one way I have grown since joining Emma. I actually ended up writing my personal statement about this class, and looking back at my time at Emma, I am so glad to have signed up for the class.  I'd still love to get better at sight reading, and really want to work on it during college. 

 

On Favorite Classes…

This is really difficult, so I'll try to keep my list pretty concise. Advanced Studies Comparative Government and Politics has been so incredibly fun, and I've really liked the amount of discussions, and I left every class wondering how I learned so much in such a short amount of time. We talked a lot about current events as well, and it was nice to be able to break them down and understand them before we misinterpreted them.

 I really liked Advanced Studies Politics of Emotion, where we examined different forms of protests and emotional rhetoric. There were so many things I read where I could feel like I had no idea what was going on, yet I could always find a line that would be stuck in my head for weeks. It was challenging, and I wouldn't trade that class for the world. Our culminating project was finding something we wanted to protest and change about Emma, and our group helped to lay groundwork for the creation of a student table talk space to process, learn, and talk about current events next year. 

Calculus and Pre-Calculus are definitely up there too, which is funny because these two classes were probably the most challenging and frustrating classes during my time at Emma. I’ve always struggled in math, beginning with those pesky timed multiplication sheets in elementary school, and these two classes reminded me how much I love math. These classes taught me how to study and seek out help by myself when I needed it. I did plenty of crashing and burning on exams and in the classroom, and I can honestly look back and say I enjoyed and grew so much, and I am so glad I took both of the classes. They weren't easy, but it was a nice reminder that I could do something challenging and have a safety net of support and grace from peers and faculty to make mistakes and be ok with it. 

 

On Ring Siblings…

Ring siblings and ring dinner have absolutely been my favorite tradition. My older and younger ring siblings mean so much to me, and I consider all of them close friends. My older ring sibling, Lila Davis ’25, is incredibly kind and gave me so much hope and support as I worked on college applications last fall, and my younger siblings, Marigold P. ’27, Lillian H. ’27, and Millie R. ’27, are incredibly inspiring and who I genuinely consider my incredible little sisters (I always wanted a sister growing up).

I remember as a ninth grader I couldn't imagine talking to older students and finding an upperclassman to propose to, and looking around at Ring Dinner junior year, it is nice to see all the ways different classes have bonded with each other. Saying goodbye to juniors at graduation was a reminder of the gift I have gotten: to see them grow up in just a few sweet years, and I am so glad to have gotten to meet them.