Woodlands Academy students got some fun and unique insights about travel, following their passions and adapting to new environments from a college senior born in India and raised in Singapore who now attends school in the United States. Driven by her passions for art, business and design, Sachi Shah is pursuing a self-created major – Leadership in Creative Enterprise – at Carnegie Mellon University. After graduating this spring, she will be working as a product manager for Adobe Creative Cloud. Shah’s Jan. 13 presentation to Woodlands Academy was done via Zoom as the school was in a planned two-week period of remote learning following the Christmas and New Year holidays. 

The high school students from 13 countries participating in an international dialogue on “Youth Action for Global Causes” included four from Woodlands Academy of the Sacred Heart. Sophomore Alex Arreci and seniors Kayla Imanzi, Maddie Moravek and Isabelle Ryan represented Woodlands, the only Illinois school involved. They joined nearly 250 students from other schools in the U.S. and Belarus, Canada, Chile, England, France, Ghana, India, Romania, Russia, South Africa, Spain and Turkey who came together Dec. 9 to offer their perspectives. Their virtual dialogue gave them an opportunity to learn how to engage in respectful dialogue, communicate across differences and understand multiple perspectives around a complex global issue.

Clara Bartusiak, a Woodlands Academy of the Sacred Heart sophomore from Lake Forest, is among a select group of 10 high school students nationwide chosen to participate in a special PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs (SRL) project. It’s the result of a recently launched partnership between SRL and Close Up, a non-profit civic education organization that inspires students to become informed, active and engaged citizens. Clara was selected based on her participation in Close Up’s Empowering Female Voices, which was offered to all Woodlands Academy sophomores and some seniors this fall.