During my time at Old Mill Recording, I went over song writing, and learned the "proper" format for a hit song. I worked inside the sound booth laying down vocals, and then worked in the mixing booth. It was a super good experience! 

1/13/20 - 1/17/20 Wrote a grant to Stratton Foundation.

1/20/20 - 1/24/20 Outlined semester projects and goals. 

1/27/20 - 1/31/20 Ordered tools and picked up supplies.

2/3/10- 2/7/20 While waiting on tools to arrive, we did make shift projects.

2/10/20 - 2/14/20 Picked up the welder.

2/17/20 - 2 /21/20 Winter Break

2/24/20 - 2/28/20 Created a table top work space for independent use.

3/2/20 - 3/6/20 All tools arrived, sorted tools and supplies and set up my work space.

3/9/20 - 3/13/20 Community Service, working with BBA’s maintenance staff welding shelves.

Began my independent study class at home due to mandatory school closing from Governor Phil Scott, in regards to the Coronavirus COVID 19

March 2020

Created a mobile work space for tools. 

 Removed heavy gauge wire from the garage wall, by grinding them off.

April 2020

Designed and created customized plaques.

Designed and built a target for sport shooting.

Repaired damaged landscape trailer.

Repaired tailpipe damage on a couple of cars.

Custom created a battery support/holder for my four wheeler

                                                                           Before                                                             After

Repaired a cracked housing assembly on the main drive of a John Deere Excavator.

Before                                                       After

I had no idea when I auditioned for ballet intensives last year that the world would suddenly be hit with a deadly virus that would threaten to ruin my dream of becoming a dancer. I have been dancing since I was two years old and have attended four summer dance intensives. I was ready to attend my fifth at the Boston Ballet when Covid hit and I realized I would be unable to go. It became clear I would have to find a way to keep my technique and strength intact and I knew that the best and safest place would be at my wonderful teacher Terrie Robinson’s studio where I could have an hour to myself three days a week to work on ballet exercises as well as one private lesson with her (with a mask). I have found myself to be much luckier than many to have the ability to rent a private studio that is local, but really, I would have been unable to continue dancing during this pandemic except for the help of the Brown Family. They supported me and my dream and helped me to be able to take classes all summer with the expert instruction of a woman who trained with the Royal Ballet and danced on Broadway. 

While dancing during the summer, I choreographed two pieces, the first for the Highland Center for the Arts about breaking out of the confines of quarantine by embracing the beauty around us and the second piece for an online theater production of  “Anne Frank” in which I portrayed the spirit of Anne Frank. I tried to work into the piece Anne’s feeling of confinement in her secret annex and her incredible imagination, hopes, and dreams for her life in the outside world. I also worked specifically on strengthening my calf muscles to improve my  relevé, my turnout by repeating certain exercises sometimes for 10 minutes just to work certain hip muscles, and my extensions, the line a dancer creates with her leg. Another thing that working in a private studio allowed me was a place to film key dances for my college applications. The beautiful golden light in the studio provided the perfect effect for a modern piece I filmed. Being alone in the studio most days of the week was extremely different from the class atmosphere of camaraderie that I was used to dancing in but it provided newfound moments of peace and clarity and has helped me perfect the smallest things.  I am forever grateful that the Brown Family has helped me keep dancing in a time of such turmoil.

I thought that I wouldn’t be able to have an experience using my Brown Grant this summer because of COVID-19. However, I made it not only work but turned it into an amazing  learning experience. The Brown Grant helped me to enroll in Coursera.org classes and get certificates for courses. I am confident I am putting it to good use. I have completed courses that ranged in subjects from understanding how ecosystems function to agricultural topics and how to manage the balance between profit and conservation. I learned about all different angles of science. I will be able to continue to do so for the rest of summer and through the coming school year because I used the balance of my Brown Grant for a subscription to the site that will make almost everything free for the next year. I am thankful for the opportunity to continue my learning and preparing for my career in science.

At the beginning of this summer I thought that I would have no use for my brown grant because of COVID 19. Originally I was supposed to attend Kaatsbaan’s summer ballet intensive in Tivoli, New York. Like many other people’s plans, mine changed. One of my year round ballet teachers offered to give me private ballet lessons in June. I was thrilled and so grateful that I got this opportunity. Thanks to the Stratton Foundation Brown Grant I have been able to take two private ballet lessons a week for all of this summer. These lessons have helped me stay in shape, motivated, and honestly, happy. I am sure many people, due to COVID have found this time to be challenging to maintain motivation, physical strength and emotional stability.  These ballet lessons helped me on all fronts.

In February 2020 I attended a broadway workshop to learn and confirm what I'd like to do in the future. It definitely confirmed it. I attended two days of workshops with broadway professionals and went to the broadway production of Moulin Rouge, one of my favorite musicals. After attending I immediately wanted to go again, as I was incredibly inspired. It's hard to exactly describe my feelings as it was something I've never felt before. The amount of determination and bliss this gave me was completely out of this world. The day after the show, the lead actually came in and told her story. I was even able to get her autograph. It's a pretty incredibly feeling when you realize what you want to pursue. The brown grant provides so many opportunities and if you get the chance to complete it, I really recommend it. I am extremely grateful for this experience and wouldn't trade it for anything. 

While working at Burr and Burton my supervisor is Brock Jennings. He and I work on most of the school's mechanic issues. I assist Brock in a bunch of really cool projects, but that’s not all we do. We spent much of my grant time in the snow shoveling and blowing. I even came in on snow days just to work with Brock. He's more than a boss, he's a friend. To the family that made this happen thanks so much for this opportunity.

In November of 2019, I began my exploration of a local business call Arson. Arson is a skateboard shop in Manchester. While there I would do general maintenance through cleaning of the shop. My main job was customer service. People would come in and ask questions about the products and parts and pieces of skateboards. Once the customer chose the different parts such as wheels, trucks, bearings, and the deck. I would then assemble all of the parts of their new skateboard for them. Customers would also need help with fitting helmets and other safety equipment. This shop also carries apparel that I would help out with. If the customer asked questions about the sport, advice, or places to skate I could also help them with that. I learned a lot from this experience about running a business and what I might do as a future career choice. 

This year I continued my pursuance of cello lessons and also made an adjustment mid-year switching to a new teacher, now working with Mr. Nat Parke who works at Bennington College. Through the year I have explored much new music that has been developing my technical and and musical abilities to play with the passion that all the best artists play with. While I've been taking cello lessons, I have been preparing for various endeavors for performance including  my Boston Youth Orchestra, summer intensives and auditions. This year especially I have been working to enrich my repertoire list as senior year approaches and I think about what colleges will best fit my needs and wants as a cellist and academic student. I recently was accepted to Boston Tanglewood Institute, Brevard Music School and Interlochen Center for the Arts which are summer music intensives offering a wide variety of opportunities for musicians across the US and even the world to come play and bond over the shared loved of music. Unfortunately, because of the coronavirus pandemic these intensives were cancelled; but I look at this time as an opportunity to continue to grow, practice and work with private teacher here in Vermont this summer. This year has been a reflective time for me to think about how my previous teacher affected my life and gave me the connections that are needed in the music world, while my new teacher has worked to prep me for next season orchestral auditions and college fall auditions and will continue to do so. Both teachers are my allies and supporters and I have received nothing but positive experiences with each of them, both giving me different opportunities to grow. The opportunity to work with some of the best teachers in New England is a privilege and I thank the Brown family with most sincere gratitude for providing me with the means to attend lessons with these fantastic teachers.

This year over the summer,  I was able to work with a personal trainer for a several weeks to work towards one of my goals, playing varsity football. I feel this experience has helped me make significant progress towards reaching that goal. With the assistance of my trainers I have gotten faster and have a greater understanding of the game football. My trainers also helped me to mentally to  change my mind set on how I approach performing basic and complex routines. For example, I did not think that pumping my hands would help that much so I did not do it, now I do it with out thinking and that is one of the reason why I got faster. This experience has helped me to keep elevating my football game but my approach to anything I pursue. I am very thankful for this opportunity, and would not have been able to do this with out the Brown Grant being available to me. It was a great experience and probably more beneficial than the original camp I was to attend. Considering the circumstances of the ongoing pandemic I can't imagine a better opportunity.