Parent Portal
Our alumni spotlight for this month is Diana Wolfe. She graduated from Willow in 2020, and she is now a sophomore at The Hun School. I had the opportunity to catch up with Diana and hear about the amazing things she is doing at Hun.
Citing Willow as the reason she values community so deeply, Diana has joined lots of clubs in her first years of high school. Among the many are JCC, Hispanic Culture Club, and Buddies Without Borders. Her choice in clubs shows her obvious dedication to learning and teaching others about culture. At the beginning of this school year, she had the honor of becoming co-leader of JCC, a Jewish cultural club. Although the club is small right now, it still feels like a very special community to Diana. Diana is very proud to have the “ability to share Jewish traditions with the rest of the Hun School community” as the co-leader.
Leading the JCC
Although COVID had limited the activities of the JCC club in some ways, Diana is happy to report that the club was able to reintroduce in-person activities this year. She even led the first event! At a weekly school event called “What’s Happening Wednesday,” Diana presented the history of Hanukkah and shared how to prepare latkes. She went above and beyond in order to make the presentation interesting and engaging for all! Diana curated a playlist and made a Hanukkah Jeopardy game based on the information from her presentation.
Presenting in front of a big crowd of people of all ages seemed a daunting task, but years of Willow Morning Gathering presentations had prepared her for this moment! After overcoming her nerves, Diana was able to look around and see how much fun the audience was having. Everyone was enjoying shouting out answers to the Jeopardy questions. They also enjoyed the delicious latkes that had been passed around. Although the Jewish population is relatively small at Hun, many people were able to learn more about Jewish culture and traditions through Diana’s well-thought-out activities.
Diana’s main takeaway from the presentation was that “even though we can get scared or nervous about putting ourselves out there, it is worth doing.” With her extensive public speaking experience at Willow, she had the courage she needed. The best part about it is that she, as well as the whole community, had a lot of fun! She looks forward to the many other events and opportunities that being co-leader of this club is bound to present.
Follow Diana’s Lead!
So for anyone reading, this is your sign to put yourself out there! Teach someone something, do something that you have been nervous about, and most importantly don’t hold yourself back. Also, don’t forget to keep learning things for yourself as well. In fact, if you would like to take a moment to learn a few Hannukah facts for yourself, check out Diana’s presentation: History of Hanukkah.
Thank you for reading! If you or any other alumni you know have done something that you think would make for a good spotlight, please email me at alumnicoordinator@willowschool.org. I would love to hear from you!
