This year’s graduating seniors were asked to participate in an interview consisting of four questions. Here are the responses of those who participated!
Shannon Robinson:
What is one of your most memorable moments at Sky Islands High School?
One of my most memorable memories at Sky islands High School is being in Performing Arts 2 years ago. We used to have so much fun and have such a great time, so many attempts to get work done but nothing got done.
How has Sky Islands High School changed you as a person?
Sky Islands High School changed me as a person by making me realize I don’t have be this cookie cutter person, it’s ok to be yourself, and if people think you’re weird, so what?
How has Sky Islands High School prepared you for your future? Has it influenced your career path at all?
Sky Islands High School prepared me for my future by teaching me how to do really good quality work, take my time and put effort into my work that a potential employer will be impressed by. It has influenced my career path by opening my eyes to so many more opportunities.
What advice would you give to students considering Sky Islands High School?
Advice that I would give to a considering Sky Islands High School student is be yourself and go with the flow, get involved, it’s a great school to go to.
Mya Acuna:
What is one of your most memorable moments at Sky Islands High School?
One of the most memorable moments at Sky Islands was when we did these games to get to know our classmates.
How has Sky Islands High School changed you as a person?
It changed me as a person by helping me talk in front of the entire school by doing presentations.
How has Sky Islands High Scholl prepared you for your future? Has it influenced your career path at all?
Helped talk to new people and it has influenced my career path because of JTED. I never would have done JTED if I was at another school.
What advice would you give to students considering Sky Islands High School?
Advice I would give would be to be nice and respectful of everyone and the school grounds, especially the chickens the fish and the turtle. Sky Islands is your home, treat it with respect and you’ll get respect back.
Bella Medina:
What is one of your most memorable moments at Sky Islands High School?
I can’t pick one memory, I believe all the time in the kitchen in 10th grade was my favorite. I got to see my growth of love for running a kitchen grow a lot. I believe a lot of change happen in that year for my dream.
How has Sky Islands High School changed you as a person?
I believe Sky Islands has pushed the best out of me. It showed me my strong side and my weaknesses. more than anything, Sky Islands has opened my eyes to my dream of a culinary career.
How has Sky Islands High School prepared you for your future? Has it influenced your career path at all?
It prepared me for my future with the knowledge I have of being a leader and as well as being in a kitchen. Yes, it helped me grow my culinary knowledge and made me want to continue that career.
What advice would you give to students considering Sky Islands High School?
Be yourself and do what makes you happy. Don’t try to do something you don’t like. Keep your options open, try different classes to see what you will like to do in the future. The last thing is to show everyone the best of you, the best you believe in.
Lee Romero:
What is one of your most memorable moments at Sky Islands High School?
When I first came! I was immediately put to work, helping build garden beds and helping take care of the chickens, even helping plant produce was the best. I remember Mike gave me a crazy first impression with a tiny red pepper, I burnt my mouth but regardless it was fun.
How has Sky Islands High School changed you as a person?
Before I came to Sky Islands, for the most part I was a huge deadbeat, I did absolutely nothing at home and although I had homeschool, I lacked motivation to do anything. I’ve always needed to do things in person but Sky Islands really helped me get out, get me working, and get me motivated to do things and I did! I wanted to do things, I didn’t just want to sit around anymore and mope about how I did nothing all day, I’m really grateful to this high school for that.
How has Sky Islands High School prepared you for your future? Has it influenced your career path at all?
Sure, I mean, being an artist has always been a huge goal of mine, but I feel like the school has given me a whole list of options to do even if I am an artist, I found out from Lukas I really love science! And Allie has strengthened my love and passion for nature! If I ever decide I don’t want to be an artist, I know I want to study space, I want to help restore nature, I want to study and travel with nature! But even if I do become an artist nothing changes!
What advice would you give to students considering Sky Islands High School?
Have an open mind, be respectful even if some things sound ridiculous, I feel like people here end up acting kind of terrible because they don’t take anything into consideration if it’s not something they want to do, but you only make something boring if you choose to! This school rules! And the teachers make things more interesting than any other school you’ll ever go to; you just have to give things a chance sometimes not everything has to be “normal” or up to your standards.
Orion Dunn:
What is one of your most memorable moments at Sky Islands High School?
One of the most memorable moments at Sky Islands was, for me, the Aravaipa Canyon field trip where we helped to remove invasive plant species. I loved going to that canyon it was such a beautiful area with tons of wildlife and amazing scenery. I was really glad that the school was able to take us there, I would have never had heard of or have gone to the place otherwise.
How has Sky Islands High School prepared you for your future? Has it influenced your career path at all?
Sky Islands has helped me focus my interest in science and allowed me to explore the topics that I was interested in. Because of this I have really been able to learn more about the topics I was interested in and helped me decide upon what I want to study in collage.
What advice would you give to students considering Sky Islands High School?
The school is very small and every one really knows each other so don’t worry about being excluded or making friends. Also, for anyone taking Lukas’ classes, on his tests, add just a little bit of extra information for any questions you can. If he asks for 2 examples of something give 3. This will help you rack up some extra credit in case you mess up on other parts of the test. trust me, it will save you in the long run.
Ricardo Salas:
What is one of your most memorable moments at Sky Islands High School?
My most memorable moment would probably be in freshman year when I was picking basil. It’s not the most exciting or impactful moment I’ve had, but it popped in my brain first. It was one of the first things my class had to do for Urban Horticulture. A lot of people didn’t like it, but I found it quite relaxing. I liked the feeling of tearing off the leaves from the stems, I liked listening to the conversations my class had, and I just like basil.
How has Sky Islands High School changed you as a person?
The main thing that has changed about me after going to Sky Islands is I’ve become a lot less scared of other people. I used to not talk at all in class and I never asked any questions because of how much of a nervous wreck I was. I wouldn’t even have been able to do something so simple as writing a reply to an email like this one. Staying here throughout the years has made me a lot less nervous because of the easy going culture the school has. There were also all the weird and wacky people at the school that made me feel a lot more comfortable being myself and opening myself up.
How has Sky Islands High School prepared you for your future? Has it influenced your career path at all?
The school has greatly helped me in my future. My grades have gone up so much from when I was in middle school. This is because of how supportive the teachers are in helping me with assignments and what we went over in class. I’ve learned that the solution to confusion is always just an onslaught of questions. This has made getting good grades and a lot of other things in life remarkably easy. The school didn’t influence my career path though, that’s a completely different story separate from the school.
What advice would you give to students considering Sky Islands High School?
The first advice is asking questions. I cannot stress this enough, asking questions solves so many problems, not just in class material, but problems around your life as well. So many misunderstandings and failures could have been diverted if people just bothered to ask questions. The second advice is to take care of the community in the school. Our school prides itself on having a supporting community that looks after itself, but you can’t expect that the school will be some peaceful utopia where everyone is welcoming to each other. I’ve seen people who have no sense of altruism ignore simple instructions and rules for no other reason than they don’t care. I find that some people seem to not find the purpose in our community, this way of thinking is the problem. How can you expect to receive everything, if you give nothing? You yourself have to be the one to make sure our school can continue thriving, you yourself have to be the one to carve your own purpose in a meaningful way. This school has so much opportunity for you to make anything you want. I mean, if I had actually realized this sooner, I would have made an entire religion with an establishment in the school, but it’s already almost the end of the year and that dream ended up slowly evaporating away. If you’re a new student reading this, I hope you can go farther than me and create something truly impactful for the school.
Kirsten Brooks:
What is one of your most memorable moments at Sky Islands High School?
I have to say the GALS trip I did sophomore year. It brought together three of my favorite things: camping, hiking, and science. It helped me discover my love for field research.
How has Sky Islands High School changed you as a person?
It has influenced my interest in science. As well as causing me to care about social issues like feminism. It has opened my eyes to a world I never knew about and made me passionate about the subject I never was interested in (thanks Lukas!).
How has Sky Islands High School prepared you for your future? Has it influenced your career path at all?
The teacher Joseph spent time teaching my class what to expect and to do for college. Most teachers are always willing to help out with anything to do with college. All of my science classes and experiences at the school has influenced me to pursue a career in science, most likely something in ecology.
What advice would you give to students considering Sky Islands High School?
All of the teachers are friendly, so don’t be afraid to ask for help.
