List of 8 items.

• On her class community:

  An Ellis student since pre-kindergarten, Sara has welcomed many peers to her class—and she wouldn’t have it any other way. "I can’t even imagine our class without all the people who came in freshman year or fifth grade. I feel like every addition has become a really valuable part of our class; it’s like a patchwork quilt. 

  It’s nice that we can all talk to each other and have shared experiences. It feels like a family.”

• Making (radio) waves:

  "I work with the Saturday Light Brigade radio program; I’m on the youth advisory council. I first got into doing stuff there after I got a Silver Key in the Scholastic Writing Awards for a piece I had done about Jane Austen and my reading journey. They asked people to come read their pieces, so I read mine there and I ended up getting really involved. I worked on their Streaming Justice special, and it was myself and three other girls around my age. We curated scheduled programming and then went on the air.”

• On academic versatility:

  "At Ellis, I’ve learned how to adapt my skills to different subjects. Even in Biology, there’s still so much writing. It has helped me see how much different fields value what I am passionate about and how I can fit into and be flexible in different environments or communities and still use my work for good to help progress the desires or goals of a community or group. I know I can help speak for those who are unable to speak for themselves.”

• What makes Ellis special:

  "You really get to know people, the teachers are really supportive of you, and you have flexibility—there are so many different options. Ellis feels very tailored to you. You can figure out your own pathways to success, figure out what you’re passionate about, try different things, and have a really great time doing it all.”

• Something Ellis has taught her:

  "Ellis has taught me to really understand and think about others—their struggles, what they’re going through. It has taught me how to not be afraid to go out of your comfort zone and try something new, and it has made me really interested in the world around me and how things work. It has helped me to dive deeper into my everyday life.”

• Her greatest passion:

  "I just love movies. It’s my favorite thing to do when I have extra time. Whenever I’m on my phone, I’m either rating movies on Letterboxd, looking at film reviews on Twitter, or figuring out what movie to watch over the weekend. I think it ties into my love for writing and stories, and it helps me be able to make connections with literature and different references people make. I write a lot of film reviews for the Ellisian Journal, and I’m also running a rom-com mini-course at Ellis that I’m really excited about.”

• On Ellis’ all-girls environment:

  "I think it really gave me confidence. It’s an environment where people really listen to you and want to hear what you have to say, whether it’s a teacher or a student. I don’t think I would have had the confidence to be co-editor of the Ellisian Journal or join softball for the first time this past year if I hadn’t seen older girls do it and be such good examples. I feel like people really care about you here.”

• Manifesting her future:

  "Journalism is interesting. Another dream job of mine is being a film critic. I also think it would be fun to be an author—one of my goals is to be in old age, in a cozy home, writing my fifth novel. I just think it would be so much fun to write as a job. I was writing a piece for the Ellisian Journal about the new math grading system this year, and I really felt a buzz—I felt passionate and like I was a real journalist. I felt so confident doing that and it really helped me to feel the want to pursue that career, or try it out just to see what it’s like.”