Since Samantha is in 8th grade (yes, time sure does fly!) at a catholic elementary school, back in October, she had to take an entrance exam in order to enter a catholic high school. She had to select 3 schools to apply to and one of them was my alma mater, Holy Trinity. She was accepted into all 3, and she chose Holy Trinity - as she had already decided that she wanted to go there almost a year ago!! Holy Trinity has a nationally known Performing Arts program - they were the first school to perform the high school version of "Les Miserables" in 2001 and the producer Cameron Macintosh attended the performance! As part of the registration process, freshman must select an arts/music elective. For any of the music electives, they had to audition. Samantha initially was going to select choir as her first choice and art was going to be her second choice, however, during registration, the director of the Performing Arts dept. spoke with her and persuaded her to audition for the Performing Arts Dept. They only accept about 60 from the freshman class of over 400, approximately 100+ typically audition.
Audition day came and Samantha was well prepared after a few days of coaching from me. She really hasn't done any performing, but it came fairly easy. Her monologue was from "Legally Blonde" - Elle's speech when accusing the daughter of killing her father. Her singing solo was "Now I Know" from "Into the Woods". She also had to dance - which is her weak point. She felt her audition went fairly well, but we had to wait for the letter to arrive.
Friday the 13th turned out to be a good day, because she received her letter and she was accepted into the Performing Arts program!!! She called me at work and she was overjoyed. I was also very proud and felt like I was going to high school all over again.
Needless to say, Samantha's high school experience will probably be very memorable. She plans on participating in track, as well as many clubs as well as all the performances for both choir and performing arts. If you are ever in NY - maybe you'll be able to catch her in the act of something!!!!
A Brand New Smile!
September is here and all the kids are going back to school, and I'm so happy to say that I am also - in a manner of speaking. I'm not only going back to school, but actually going back to my high school!! You all know that I have been involved in my high school alumni theatre group and this past summer, I was the musical director. The high school went through some faculty downsizing and was looking for someone to direct their "select choir".....one thing led to another and I have taken that position and will be starting very shortly!!! I am so excited to be able to get back to music, especially at my high school, where it really all began for me. Samantha is ok with me being there, as my rehearsals will be at night, so I really won't see her. I've already met some of the kids and they are great, so I'm really looking forward to it and who knows....maybe I'll get back to being a teacher after all these years!!!!
As Samantha's journey towards high school continues, she received her courses for next year and we are very proud to say that she has been placed in honors courses for every subject possible!!! She was surprised a bit with being placed in Honors English, but she is up for the challenge. Needless to say, that with her course load and her aim to be very involved in many after school activities, as well as her continued quest towards her black belt in karate, she will be on very busy girl.
