High school students are consumed by what makes up their visible footprint during these critical years: grades, awards and extracurricular activities that students feel they should do because they look prestigious on college applications. High school resumes showcase how students spend their time and challenge themselves not only inside but also outside the classroom. Fieldston Staff and Alumni shared what high school extracurriculars influenced their careers and overall character development the most. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fieldston Alum \u201898 Rachel Goodman shared how participating in theater during high school has impacted her today as Chief of Staff to NYC Comptroller Brad Lander. Her job primarily entails staff management and administration. With seemingly no obvious correlations, theater has enabled Goodman to acquire important attributes that make her better in the workplace but also a better human being. Goodman voiced, \u201cThe thing I loved about theater was the \u2018here we are!\u2019 A group of people building something from scratch. Rise it up, take it down, then move on to something else. That is what a political campaign is like. We start from nothing, build something, there is one day that something happens, and then it\u2019s over. That had the same camaraderie as theater.\u201d Goodman emphasizes a cycle of creation and its closure that exists in theater, politics and life itself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Goodman found additional development to her maturity in her theatrical pursuits. “When you do theater, even in high school, there is a lot of auditioning and not getting what you want,\u201d Goodman said. \u201cIt certainly gave me a sense of what it is to be disappointed in the outcome of something.\u201d Rejection is both an inevitable and fundamental aspect of personal and professional development. The more we expose ourselves to rejection, the more desensitized we become to it, helping us to cope and navigate future uncertainties of life. After all, success is ultimately a numbers game: if you have not succeeded, it is because you have not tried enough times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For Fieldston English teacher Ms. Stabenau, it was through ballet that she learned about \u201cThe pleasure you can get out of working really hard on something worthwhile and beautiful. Nothing happens quickly in ballet, improvement and developing strength takes a long time\u2026 You have to be patient and accepting of yourself, but you also have to push yourself hard. That’s an important kind of balance to aim for in life.\u201d As both Stabenau and Goodman highlight, we each start from humble beginnings, work to accomplish something worthwhile, face trials and tribulations, overcome those obstacles and eventually arrive at the conclusion of our creative endeavors. An individual\u2019s character is further developed by finding beauty and meaning in this journey itself from beginning to end \u2013 not only the final destination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fieldston History and Economics teacher Dr. Heideman articulates that \u201cMock trial is probably the one that did the most to develop my public speaking skills, which obviously I rely on a lot as a teacher\u2026 It taught me how to slow down when speaking and really think about what I was doing, prepare and build an argument logically.\u201d Public speaking will always lend itself as a vital skill with multifaceted benefits, including critical thinking, persuading an audience of one\u2019s argument and more. These timeless aptitudes have broad applicability and will serve anyone well in a wide swathe of personal and professional domains. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The vast majority of Fieldston students enjoy participating in their sport of interest. The common skills people often associate with athletics include resilience, teamwork and discipline. Fieldston English teacher Dr. Brown explains the universal lessons that sports have to offer: \u201cI think the way it [soccer] impacted my life is that it taught me how to not be fearful, and how to take risks and be comfortable with taking risks.\u201d Although taking risks may evoke uncertainty and fear, the rewards of doing so often outweigh the emotional anxiety. Stepping outside one\u2019s comfort zone is a critical step toward personal growth. A recent neuroscientific discovery of the anterior midcingulate cortex supports this philosophy. This structure is larger in athletes and found in individuals who live to 100 years of age. The growth of the anterior midcingulate is associated with activities that we often psychologically resist; it is what gives us willpower. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Form IV psychologist Dr. Harris shared that he participated in a jazz band in high school. By doing, so he was exposed to, \u201cA lot of communication that\u2019s not through language. There\u2019s eye contact and body language, when someone\u2019s playing musically. Nonverbal communication is a big part of my job.\u201d Psychology acknowledges nonverbal communication as integral to navigating interpersonal relationships and human interaction. Nonverbal communication facilitates our spoken words, often adding more emphasis and meaning to what we are saying. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fieldston offers opportunities for students to create their own extracurriculars within the school. For Ms. Gruder, her interest was East European folk dancing. She was able to delve into this by starting her own club, which she did as a student at Fieldston. \u201cIt\u2019s one of the really good things about Fieldston. Even if you have the quirkiest hobby, you can actually do something about it here. You never know who else might have that quirky hobby and who might join your folk dance club,\u201d said Gruder. She also started her own German language class among other interested students. Together, they found a French teacher who was a native German speaker. Gruder matriculated in college as a foreign language major. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
High school is a time for navigating the difficult transition from adolescence to adulthood. These are the best years to make mistakes without long-term repercussions. Form IV Dean Mr. Drybala shared that growing up, he worked at a camp: \u201cIt was a lot of actual training around leadership, training around skills and things that I hadn\u2019t really been exposed to in academics. I think that maybe it was an area where I could make mistakes and not be penalized for it.\u201d The mistakes, challenges and rewards that we make during our teen years, especially outside of the classroom, serve as catalysts for self-discovery; they illuminate the path towards discovering what we want to accomplish, but also who we want to become in the process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
High school students are consumed by what makes up their visible footprint during these critical years: grades, awards and extracurricular activities that students feel they should do because they look prestigious on college applications. High school resumes showcase how students spend their time and challenge themselves not only inside but also outside the classroom. Fieldston Staff and Alumni shared what high school extracurriculars influenced their careers and overall character development the most. Fieldston Alum \u201898<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":358,"featured_media":9043,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[535,347,426,318],"tags":[],"coauthors":[511],"class_list":["post-9042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-community","category-faculty","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Screen-Shot-2024-02-15-at-11.18.41-AM-e1708013975218.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/358"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9042"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9042\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9044,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9042\/revisions\/9044"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9042"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=9042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}