For our annual graduation feature, the Town Crier solicited interviews, bios and photographs from any and all graduating high school seniors in the Kentlands. Over the past several weeks we were able to interview six graduates and received resumes and/or photos from the parents of several others. This is just a sample of the community’s graduating seniors, but these students have clearly worked very hard and accomplished much already. We congratulate all of Kentlands’ graduating seniors and wish them a great summer and much success in the future!
Patty Dirlam
Patty will be attending Notre Dame in the fall. She gives credit to her mom for encouraging her to apply to a school
that had not even ‘been on her radar.’ What sold her? A beautiful campus with both old and modern architecture well integrated, the feel – a Notre Dame “high” from students all so happy to be there – and a chapel which she happened to pop into while an organist was playing. This ‘knocked her socks off’; the “magnitude of the organ matched the magnitude of the school spirit,” she says.
Patty has two siblings, an older sister at Boston College and a younger brother who is a rising 8th grader. Guidance from her sister included significant help polishing her college essays; help that Patty says made a big difference. At Notre Dame she plans to study Aerospace Engineering, and enjoys noting that she one day “could be a rocket scientist!”
At QO Patty is more than academically involved; she is president of three clubs, if the Student Government Association (SGA) is included as a ‘club.’ Patty is SGA president, as well as president of Best Buddies Club – is an international organization designed to promote friendship. The organization matches high school students with disabilities with non-disabled high school students. The third club over which Patty presides is called the QO Project. The focus of this group is to engage middle school students in the high school community by going to their schools and talking to them about the high school experience. Her proudest and fondest accomplishment as a member of this group was the work she put into a documentary about the history of the Quince Orchard area, work that involved many hours of transcribing interviews conducted by a previous QO graduate (2007 or so?). She loved learning about the area’s history.
Transitioning from serious school subjects to after-school fun, Patty confirms she attended the prom – two proms actually. QO’s and Poolesville’s.
A concept close to Patty’s heart is inclusion – a theme that has run through her high school career, evident in her her leadership of the Best Buddies program and her eagerness to involve ESOL students in school activities, resulting in an unprecedented three ESOL students running for SGA this past year. Patty has big ideas about ensuring that everyone feels included.
Jackson Harnois
Jackson boasts a very impressive resume, replete with achievements both academic and athletic, employment both paid and volunteer.
He attended prom with his girlfriend Page Matthews whom he started dating last year when he asked her to the 2016 prom. He had never asked anyone out before, but his friends encouraged him, and Friday night marked a full year together. Prom to prom; just one factor that leads Jackson to proclaim prom night as the coolest night ever. Being chosen by the senior class to be among one of four couples serving as prom court was certainly another.
While Page is headed to UT Austin, Jackson will be attending George Mason. He has plans: a major in criminology, a minor in intelligence analysis, Army ROTC, and of course, hockey. Jackson has a three- year ROTC scholarship which allows students to spend the first year of college in ROTC and then to decide if they want to continue. If so, ROTC pays for the remaining three years. Afterwards, Jackson can choose what branch of the army and his preferred assignment. He already knows he will choose intelligence.
Jackson describes his decision to attend this particular school as a difficult one. He was accepted to all but one of the five schools to which he applied. In the end, his parents helped him decide, and Jackson notes with enthusiasm how George Mason got his final vote – Proximity to DC and the intelligence community, D3 ACHA hockey, and a good friend of his is also attending. They will room together.
Making multiple appearances on his resume is the topic of ice hockey. Jackson has played since he was five years old, but more impressively, he started the Quince Orchard club in his year. Unable to obtain Montgomery County approval as a recognized varsity sport, Jackson built and captained a team, organized practice and games against area schools, and designed the logo for jerseys, hats, magnets, etc. The team was coached by his father, who also started playing at a very young age. Father and son hockey devotees – more symmetry.
Jackson has one sibling, his sister Hannah, a sophomore at QO. He has already given her prom advice based on his most recent experience. When she goes to ‘After Prom’ she should stay until the end. There is a raffle and everyone wins something, he says. But the later you stay, the better the winnings.
Maya Jacobson
Interviewed the morning after prom, which Maya attended with her boyfriend, Jake Feidelman, Maya is effusive
about the avoidance of rain that was forecast. ‘We were Super lucky!’ Maya explains that she loves to organize events and prom was no exception. She planned a pre-prom party with 52 people in attendance, the bus to dinner at Cesco in Bethesda, and the dinner itself, seeking out the venue and arranging all the logistics.
Maya will attend the University of South Carolina in the fall where she plans to rush a sorority. She is trying not to over-research them, wanting to remain open minded about which. Her reasons for joining a sorority are atypical. The sorority world will provide planning and leadership opportunities.
Pre-med is her intended major, with a view towards practicing orthopedic surgery. If unable to socialize at college as much as she’d like, Maya is already thinking about, and looking forward to, informal reunions with her friends here at Yoyogi and Neal’s Bagels.
Maya’s parents have reminded her to stay in touch, but they know she is disciplined so there is no need to push studying. The school is far from home but her mother, also a lover of warm weather, plans to visit a lot.
Maya would like to thank her best friends, Sophie Lane, Brittany Mills, Hannah Pearlstein, Dani Lawhorne and Lauren Kelly, who’ve been there for her, supported her during this ‘crucial year.’ Together, she says, they created life-long memories.
Timothy Kress
Tim will miss the sense of community at QO, especially at the football games. QO, he explains, is relatively small compared to Northwestern and Richard Montgomery, for example, and there is that strong sense of community.
Tim has a deep and multi-purposed interest in the environment. He stopped running track after freshman year in order to focus on school in general, and to run for president of the Environment Club. Among the club’s accomplishments under his leadership was taking advantage of an increased budget from the school to improve the school’s recycling program and a reduction in paper towel usage. Tim also helped organize a group to clean up the Kentlands lake areas, in cooperation with the leader of the QO National Honor Society.
Tim is headed to Virginia Tech in the fall where he plans to pursue his environmental interests by majoring in sustainable architecture. He became aware of this particular subject during his AP Environmental Science class but Tim says he has long maintained an interest in building while protecting the environment — even in childhood when playing with Legos or building sand castles. After the five year program at Virginia Tech, he can apply directly for his license, unlike other schools which require an additional two or three years of study.
Eight of his QO classmates will be attending Virginia Tech. Tim will meet his roommate and learn more about his classes at orientation July 20 and 21. Meanwhile, he hopes to have fun and travel with his family who love to cruise. Tim says they’ve been on so many cruises that it’s no longer about where they’ll visit but checking out what different cruise lines have to offer. Sounds like the best kind of homework!
Bear Lee
A fixture on the Kentlands tennis courts for years, Bear is a graduate of Maret School in Washington. D.C. He will be attending Whitman College located in Walla Walla, Washington in the fall. There he plans on contributing to the Blues tennis team as well as increasing his knowledge and skills through the education of a liberal arts campus. He attended the Maret School from kindergarten through the end of his senior year.
Cecile Paquette
Cecile, a Kentlands resident about to become a 2017 graduate of Holy Child, knows Maya Jacobson because they were Kentlands Kingfish together. Cecile will be attending Wake Forest. Why? She wanted a small school, or so she thought. But when she looked at Lafayette in PA and Holy Cross in Massechussets, they felt too small and too much like more of the same – her class of 60 girls at Holy Child in Potomac. But Wake Forest was different; it felt like a ‘big’small school, a campus where you’d recognize fellow undergrads.
And there are research opportunities and a travel-abroad program — a pre-requisite for Cecile, whose first goal is to travel. She may not have yet declared a major, but Cecile knows she wants to travel – personally or professionally. It runs in the family. Her brother will be studying in France this fall through a program run by Grinnell College where he is a student.
Cecile did year book for three years, which was the ‘best thing ever’ she says. She loved interviewing people to get quotes and putting pictures together. Another best thing ever was Holy Child swim team, where the team consisted of girls from all upper grades — girls with whom she made great friends.
After senior exams concluded this semester, Cecile took an internship at the national office of Catholic Charities in Alexandria. Commuting and working side by side with her mother, she learned a lot. In her first office experience, she attended meetings, learned how an office runs and learned how her mother operates outside of home.
In addition to why she is going to Wake Forest, Cecile would like people to know how she got to Wake Forest. She participated in many extra curricular activities she says, not to pack her resume, but because she liked them; she worked at getting to know her likes and dislikes. When she does get to Wake Forest, you won’t find her joining every campus club. She will have the comfort, and confidence, of knowing she is doing exactly what she wants. With Wake Forest, Cecile says, ‘I wasn’t trying to find the best school, just the best school for me.’
Jack Strodel
Jack, who has had a tough but successful journey to this point says, “My greatest achievement is finishing High School and getting into the Occupational Therapy program at Towson University. Thank you!!!”
Spencer Tabit
While it’s true nearly every QO student interviewed mentioned school spirit as a favorite feature of QO High School, Spencer may have said it best when remarking that QO is different from other schools that are simply trying to be like QO, in that they challenge themselves to match QO’s level of spirit. Another aspect of QO that Spencer liked — not being forced into any particular direction; the freedom to choose your path.
His favorite teachers at QO? Miss Adams whom he had for four years of computer science. Spencer appreciated how
she really got to know her students, helped them on an individual basis and wrote him a recommendation for the University of Maryland. Another favorite was Miss Patel, his math teacher, who recognizing Spencer’s talent, pushed and challenged him in a subject that he plans to be his minor.
Spencer will be attending University of Maryland, College Park, where he was admitted to the Honors College. He will live in Hagerstown, the Honors dormitory, where students apparently are ‘honored’ by having to learn to live without air conditioning. This summer he learns who his roommate will be. Excited, yet a bit nervous, Spencer is definitely looking forward to orientation.
Going to College Park was not a complicated decision. Both parents grew up watching Maryland sports, and during his junior year at QO, Spencer developed a keen interest in computer science and math, his major and minor respectively, and two disciplines in which University of Maryland excels. While Spencer did consider other schools — University of Delaware, Villanova, UNC Chapel Hill – avoiding future debt was a primary factor, and University of Maryland offered him the best academic scholarship.
While he waits for orientation and the start of college, Spencer will serve as an intern at BNL Consulting, where he will be coding software among other computer science assignments.
His hobbies are playing varsity tennis and basketball, hanging out with his 15- year old brother
and participating in the ‘It’s Academic’ Club. This year, his team was televised and won the first two rounds, reaching the semi-finals. Spencer also collects the classics – Dickens, Hemingway, Upton Sinclair. And he finally lets it slip that Spencer was also a class valedictorian.
Turner Thackston
Turner, a QO graduating senior, was involved in Best Buddies, allied sports and football at QO. He will attend
Montgomery College to begin pursuing a degree in Math Education. Turner just earned his Eagle Scout rank with Troop 1094.