This week the Ravine is delighted to highlight Ava Perry as Wolf of the Week. Ava Perry is the Kilbourne National Honors Society (NHS) President, a partial IB diploma student, and captain of the Kilbourne field hockey team. She has gone to Kilbourne all four years of high school and has participated in field hockey for those four years as well. Ava has taken in rigorous classes and been an involved member of the community throughout her high school career and will continue to do so for the remainder of her senior year.
Ava is a member of the National Honors Society. She doesn’t just participate though; She is the appointed president. Ava talked about the National Honors Society, describing it as “ a national organization [whose] main focus is just to help the community through service projects. Last year we did an art drive as our main one. There are lots of different things that we participate in.” As president, she is responsible for reaching out to many of these organizations for her fellow NHS peers to volunteer with and she is responsible for organizing meetings.
Ava Perry is also a half-IB diploma student, taking Theory of Knowledge, a mandatory class for full or half-IB diploma students, IB French, and IB English. Ava loves IB, which stems heavily from the special community in the IB program. She says that “it’s a really great community to have, especially being around the support of other students who kind of have the same aspirations as you, and the teachers are really great. Mrs. Glaros and Mrs. Goodwin are the CAS and IB coordinators so they’re really supportive. All of the teachers are [supportive], and it’s just really nice to have a community like that.” The IB students all care for each other a lot, and they show this by “the fun little things that we do together, the teachers do a lot of organizing but also the students will plan little holiday parties and every time it’s someone’s birthday we’ll like to bake treats for each other and stuff like that and it’s just really involved and we all care a lot about each other.”
While Ava is extremely grateful for her experiences with IB, she also acknowledges that it is an extremely challenging program, and she gave us some helpful tips on how to not only stay afloat but also thrive in the IB environment. and level of rigor. She suggests, “definitely try to connect your IB classes to each other, I think as a full IB student it is definitely more manageable but I take IB French and IB English as well as theory of knowledge and everything really interlocks with each other, as long as you are trying to kind of connect your conscious through one continual stream it will make a lot more sense and feel like a lot less work to you.” She also advised to “have everything in order”; Ava told us that her organization skills were pretty much non-existent freshman and sophomore year, but as a junior when she started to get things together, she said this basic skill of being organized and planning ahead helped her, and this can apply to any student in any class. Organization is a vital tool no matter what classes students are enrolled in.
On top of being NHS president, Ava is also this year the captain of the WKHS field hockey team, which she has been involved in since her freshman year. Her favorite thing about the team is “the community with the girls. It’s just a really great, fun environment where we get to grow, not only as players but also as people. It’s like being part of a family which is awesome to be around”.
Ava has made a huge impact on her community and school throughout her time here at Kilbourne, but one of her biggest focuses is her family. “My parents are great, they have been so supportive to me my whole life and I admire them and am so grateful to them for everything they have done to help me get where I am”. Ava left us with a few pieces of advice. Her first piece of advice from the standpoint of the National Honors Society President, “Community service is something you need to be getting involved with off the bat, I think a lot of people do it because you need the hours or because it looks good on applications, but I think once you really delve into it it’s worth so much more than that. It makes you feel good about yourself and it makes those around you feel good. It truly does impact so many in your community and it is so important to reach people”.
Her next piece of advice is from the view of the WKHS field hockey captain, as she shares that “the sports are really great and all of them have amazing environments to grow and thrive not only as a player but as a person. So my advice would just be to get involved in a sport or club. You walk away from these as a better person. You learn so much from your coaches or advisors and also from your peers and kids younger than you. Even in my last season I am still learning so much and it encourages me when I am thinking about the program after I leave”.
Her last piece of advice she has learned from her year thus far as a senior student, she advises, “stay organized, decide your priorities and stick to them and just know who you are and stay true to that. You know yourself best and know what you need so don’t be afraid to prioritize things you need to do versus what you think others need you to do. Helping out is important but you also need to be taken care of. That’s the most important balance”. Thanks Ava for the example you have set and for the goodness you have brought to Kilbourne. Have a great week Wolves and make sure to submit any wolf of the week nominations on our website!
