List of 7 items.

• How Ellis builds her confidence:

  “Ellis is a low judgement zone. I feel really confident speaking up during class because I know no one is making assumptions about what I say. I feel very free to voice my opinions and contribute to discussions.”

• On the magic of music:

  “I think that music is basically converting air into beauty. It really brings me a unique sense of joy when I see that people love a song that we worked so hard on in Glee Club.”

• On her horizon:

  “I want to make a difference and challenge the traditional approaches that are in place to promote a more inclusive environment. I’m really interested in law and politics—maybe that looks like being a diplomat or working at the UN.”

• A project that’s exciting her:

  Creating podcasts in Culture in Context that explore Ellis history. “We’ve been developing podcasts modeled after WESA’s ‘Good Questions’ series. The host, Katie Blackley, visited our class to give us pointers and walk through her process. It’s fun because we’re exploring different mediums and I have so many different vocations I’m interested in.”

• Campus connections:

  A big sister to incoming students, Grace goes out of her way to make sure everyone is included. “I love meeting new people and connecting with them. I feel like it’s part of my job to make new students feel welcome because people did that for me when I was new in ninth grade.” 

• Community connections:

  After meeting producers of a local radio show, Saturday Light Brigade, in an Ellis class, Grace began interning for them. “It gave me a taste of what journalism is like and opened a lot of opportunities for me to meet changemakers in the community. I helped develop podcasts, learned how to write interview emails, and set up scripts.”

• How her teachers make learning fun:

  By connecting concepts across subjects to boost comprehension. “I really like the education I’m getting at Ellis—the curriculum is so interesting. We have parallel studies, so when we read Pride and Prejudice in English class, we were also learning about English constitutionalism in history class.”