We hope that all of our families are enjoying a wonderful long Easter weekend with family and friends!
Our “Meet Us Monday” blog series continues this week as we introduce you to the members of the ILS Class of 2019! The weeks are quickly flying by as our countdown to Graduation continues. As we prepare to send our graduates off to high school, we’ve taken some time to interview each of our 8th grade students to learn more about some favorite ILS memories and traditions, words of wisdom they’ve received over the years, and other reflections from their years here with us at ILS. We hope that you enjoy getting to better know our ILS Class of 2019!
Meet Us Monday: Jonah C., ILS Class of 2019
1. How long have you attended ILS? I have attended since 3rd grade, so this is my sixth year at ILS. Nearly half my life.
2. To what house do you belong, and how have you developed as a person by being involved in it? I’m in Augustine. We’re the smallest house and always have been. We didn’t get many new members this year because there were so many other younger siblings that had to enter particular houses to go with their family. Every house has something that makes it that particular house. Augustine’s is probably the community and the sense of friendship. Houses have changed a lot since we first started. My overall experience has been enjoying the fun of competition. Some competitions changed over the years, but we do have traditional ones that come back every year.
3. What was your favorite House competition? Field Day might be my favorite house competition that we have every year. We played Capture the Flag one year, which was probably my favorite. You can’t participate in every event at Field Day, because the time limits and number of competitions prohibit that, but everyone general participates in 4-5 events usually. I also enjoy the soccer game we do. The houses have great sportsmanship which makes it easy – every house is good about losing and also about winning.
4. What is your favorite ILS memory? (Or, which ILS tradition will you remember the most?) A lot of the good memories are from house competitions and even field trips. In 4th grade, I won the Spelling Bee we did with other schools, and that was a great memory. Another favorite recurring memory is dismissal on the last day of the school year. What makes it great? We give great send offs and it’s a sort of nostalgic day.
5. Which event did you most look forward to during your 8th grade year? Definitely Adventure Camp, and I’m sure most people in my class are looking forward to it too. It’s the highlight, definitely the golden standard for camps. Last year was my first year attending and it was different than I imagined. We did team building exercises, kayaking, created lots of inside jokes. It was fun.
6. What was your favorite class at ILS, and why? My favorite class is either math or science. I’ve always had good teachers in those classes. Mr. Schultz was a great teacher, and Miss D. Davis is a good teacher too and our homeroom teacher in 8th grade this year.
My parents and Miss Davis led an Immanuel group at MathCounts this year. Sometimes it’s stressful but also fun. The Count Down round was especially stressful because I was competing in front of huge crowd. My favorite memories of that day were a tie between getting second in the Count Down round and the Steak ‘N’ Shake I ate.
7. What was your favorite ILS field trip? Camp, but I already said that. Oh, at the Museum of Natural History we had a pretty cool field trip in which we actually touched human bones and tried to solve a forensic mystery. The story was that the bones were of a man who died and we had to figure out what killed him. We had to get a bit of help, but ended up solving it on our own.
8. Where are you attending High School? I am going to Bishop Ireton. Their animal is the cardinal. I went to a shadow day there in 7th grade. It had a good community just like ILS, but it’s a bigger school. I’ll have roughly 200 people in my grade there. BI is also making a STEM lab for STEM topics which I think will be really cool. I’m already selecting some classes – I’ll definitely keep up with Latin but also intend to study Spanish.
9. What will you miss the most about ILS? Not sure. When I say “not sure” it just means that there are a lot of things I’ll miss and it would take forever to consider that. It would take a long time to determine what about ILS I appreciate the most and then say what I’ll miss most about it. There aren’t a lot of things I’d change if I could.
10. What is something a teacher told you that you will never forget? A lot of teachers have said this: Having lots of skill at math or history or whatever you like to do will get you nowhere if you do not work hard. You might be another Einstein, but if people know that you are not willing to put in work and effort towards your classes then you will have wasted that skill. Any college will pick a 3.0 GPA student that works very hard over a 4.0 GPA student that is lazy when it comes to school. That motivates me to work hard and I will never forget that message.