“My grandmother is a Holocaust survivor. She told me her story when I was little and it's something that's been very important to me ever since.” For the project, Max interviewed his grandmother and drafted a novel telling the story of her experience. While the novel may currently remain in draft form, hearing his grandmother’s story has led Max to a sustained interest in Holocaust education that has fueled his History Fair projects, his course of study, and even how he spends his spare time. 

Asked how she juggles all of her commitments and the demands of her mostly AP course load, Multy says, “I just think about how important all of these are to me, I don't want to give any of them up, so I make time. I wouldn't feel right about stopping being involved.

Jake is on to Northeastern University, and is excited to get involved in their Co-op program, an educational program in which students alternate semesters of academic study with semesters of full-time employment in positions related to their career interests in both the United States and globally. “I’d like to have the chance to work abroad—I’d love to work with one of Northeastern’s partner programs at the BMW headquarters in Berlin, Germany.”

 

And while Jake is ready to wrap-up his Senior year and start new adventures, he will miss Shorecrest—the place he has called home for fourteen years. "I’ll miss the comfort of this place,” he says. “Having been here for fourteen years, this place so familiar. You could blindfold me and put me anywhere on campus and I’d know exactly where I am!”

In addition to helping to take care of athletes as an intern with the school's athletics department, Jonathan is also one himself. He’s been a part of the Shorecrest football team for all four years of Upper School.

Last spring, when Shorecrest presented “The Phantom of the Opera,” Jonathan’s portrayal of the Phantom connected the audience with the tortured, lovable, misunderstood character. Jonathan recalls, “In Phantom, I really enjoyed learning how to become a character on stage, not just act like one.” Jonathan was so committed to the role, he even shaved his head for the opening performance.

This spring Jonathan took the lead in yet another iconic musical, the most ambitious that the Shorecrest musical theatre program had ever attempted - “Les Misérables.” Jonathan played Jean Valjean to a packed house in the Janet Root Theatre.

Jonathan says, “Balancing athletics and theatre is both hard but fun! Because I've dedicated so much time into both, it becomes like a puzzle fitting in pieces when necessary and trying to find what fits. Yes, sometimes sacrifices have to be made, but thanks to the administration in both categories, things get a lot easier.”

Jack's favorite courses are those in the humanities, “I’m very into politics, government, history, poetry, those kinds of things,” he says. Jack’s love of government led him to take Kurt Wahlgren’s AP Comparative Government—a study of the governments of six different countries. “I was just fascinating to learn about these different governing systems. Because Mr. Wahlgren has lived in and taught in a number of other countries, he has a very interesting perspective.”

 

As he delved into life at Shorecrest, Jack was also focused on beginning the process of applying to colleges. After doing a lot of research and speaking with his father, Jack decided his first choice was the United States Military Academy, commonly known as West Point. Jack’s father was a United States Naval Academy graduate, who went on to join the Air Force, but Jack said his father was completely behind his decision to break tradition and join the Army. “My dad was very supportive. When I was researching the different academies, I looked up the curriculum and what I could study at each school and I discovered that the Naval and Air Force academies are both engineering, math, and science focused, whereas at West Point, the curriculum is broader.” As a student very interested in humanities, Jack was excited about the prospect of taking courses in strategy, psychology and warfare.

Courtney Moore has an outstanding memory. She remembers playing on a loft at age three in Alpha class at Shorecrest 15 years ago, and Mrs. Bassford’s fifth grade science class. It is this sharp mind and attention to detail that will keep her on the pre-med track the next four years at Boston’s Northeastern University Honors Program.

“During my campus visit, I got to see some classes and meet some professors and everybody was so passionate about what they were learning. It reminded me a lot of Shorecrest, actually, because they have a big focus on experiential learning,” she says.

“Shorecrest is so much a part of who I am today, how I think and how I feel,” Courtney continues. “And it’s because of experiences that I’ve had at Shorecrest that I am the way that I am and like certain types of learning over other types of learning. It was in Mr. Collins’ class (seventh grade life science) I really found a love for biology and now I’m going into college as a biochem major. So, it’s kind of thanks to him for introducing that to me and making me love life science."

During Service Week 2016, a group of Upper School Chargers visited a school in a small, coastal village in Cuba. Julia Saunders and others worked with young students to educate them about environmental issues, such as pollution. Julia took it upon herself to bring the little girls sparkly hair bows and headbands. She wanted them to feel pretty and valued. At the end of the day, those same little girls repaid Julia when they took her by the hand and led her to a beautiful cove with clear, blue water. Julia jumped in with the girls, fully clothed, screaming with excitement.

This is a snapshot of Julia Saunders - happy in the role of either leader or friend, she is outgoing and friendly, the perfect Student Ambassador for greeting new people and giving tours of our beautiful campus. “It’s fun to be an Ambassador because I can tell everybody my unique experience of how I came to Shorecrest when I was three and then left because I wanted a change. I wasn’t here for two years of high school. I came back because I realized there really isn’t a better place than Shorecrest.”

The daughter of a doctor and a dentist, Lucille Weiskopf has always had her eye on a profession in the medical field, and has taken it upon herself to prepare as much as possible. Over her summer breaks, Lucy volunteered at St. Anthony’s Hospital and Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital. For a while she was placed in the gift shop, but at All Children’s she was able to “actually work with children and play with them and make their day a little bit better. I really liked that experience.”

It was fortuitous timing for Lucy that Upper School teacher Mrs. Peck fostered the creation of both the Pre-med Club and The Center for Medical Sciences at Shorecrest, just in time for Lucy to shadow surgeons in the field and learn from multiple guest speakers. “Her class is really hard, but the opportunities that she gets us to shadow surgeons and anesthesiologists and all the speakers that come in really opened my eyes to all the different jobs in the medical field.”