Discus Award Winner
Winners Gallery
Bethany Beekly
12th Grade, WA
ATTRIBUTES
Academics
I have thus far been fortunate enough to suffer from an excess rather than a dearth of enthusiasm over the course of my education. I delight in all subjects, the thrill of James Joyce indistinguishable from that of geometry, and for my zealous academic pursuits I received my school's Junior Academic Award as well as the Harvard Book Award this past spring. Throughout the entirety of my time in school I have maintained straight As, and my current weighted cumulative high school GPA is about 4.2 as a result of the AP courses I have taken in Biology, British Literature, and Art History—that selection further illustrates my desire for depth in every academic area. This year I will add AP Calculus, AP American Literature, AP Physics, AP US History, and AP Spanish to that list.
Arts
From the moment that my toddler self stopped dead before a magnificent rendition of an operatic aria by Cecilia Bartoli, my family knew I was musically inclined. As a child I attended Early Music Guild concerts with my mom and sat for hours with my grandpa listening to Glenn Gould performing Bach and Scarlatti. I sang constantly, and still do to this day; finally, when I was eight years old, I began piano lessons. The following year I began clarinet, my greatest musical passion, though it one of no less than five instruments in which I am at least proficient. At age 10 I became the youngest member of the Greenwood Concert Band; I now play first clarinet there and am principal clarinet in my school orchestra, in the Northwest Clarinet Choir, the All-City Clarinets, and a clarinet quartet.
Community Service
My work with Seattle Music Partners, an organization which provides music education to at-risk youth who may not otherwise have such opportunities, is perhaps the biggest thing in my life. For the past 3 years I have spent 2 afternoons a week with the program giving clarinet and piano lessons. The past year has been the most interesting: SMP added a group lesson day at my school for theory lessons and ensemble rehearsals; I went on those days to work more closely with the core SMP staff, even planning and teaching my own lesson in June. My teaching abilities have improved greatly, but the most drastic growth has been in this past year when the opportunity to work with these skilled educators has given me an extra push. I continue to strive to improve in order to better serve my students.
