Hard work really does pay off, at least in the case of Sarah Allen, who was voted valedictorian of her Grade 12 graduating class at Elmira District Secondary School. She will be delivering her speech at commencement in November.
“I love the people in my grade,” she said of the title. “That’s kind of the coolest thing about being valedictorian is I’m happy that I had the chance to be friends with a lot of them.”
However, the multi-talented 17-year-old has big plans before the graduation ceremony. She will be heading to England to further her education and gain travel experience.
“It’s like a Bible college, but it’s really well known,” explained her father, Dan Allen, senior pastor at Elmira’s Woodside Bible Fellowship. “It’s not even a year program it’s like six or seven months. She wanted to take a year off before she went back full time to school. She wants to travel there, too. [The school] is called Capernwray Hall and it’s in England. And do that and travel a bit, then come back and work, and then go to Guelph.”
After her Europe travel plans, Sarah will be attending Guelph University for a bachelor of arts and science degree. Allen chose Guelph to mix her passion for science with art since she is a huge fan of painting. One of her watercolour pieces was selected for the K-W Art Gallery, said her proud father.
Her interest in art sparked back up again by taking elective classes in 2017.
“I didn’t take it in Grade 10, but in Grade 11 I picked it back up again, and I was really glad that I did,” said Allen. “I actually find it helpful for learning how you use different mediums and it gave me a chance to work art into my schedule and have regular time to do what I want, so that was really nice about it.”
“I taught Sarah for three years,” said Lynn Pavlik, head of the art department at EDSS. “She’s very talented, but she works very hard at it, too. Like she uses her talent. She doesn’t take it for granted. It’s such a blessing that she is so talented, but she also works really hard at it too which is wonderful to see. Her artwork has such sensitivity to it. Very beautiful pieces.”
What stands out to her teacher was her willingness to constantly learn and improve.
“She was always inquisitive about how to make her artwork better and how to use different art mediums,” said Pavlik. “She was always willing to learn, which is another big thing.”
“I really like watercolour,” she said of her favourite type of art. “It’s the easiest thing. Because if you make a mistake, it just looks like it’s part of the painting. I really like art, but I have a lot of other interests as well. Volleyball, science, and languages.”
Allen wanted to combine arts with science however because of her strong interest in both topics, biology in particular.
“Biology would probably be my favourite class,” she said. “But it’s really hard to say because I like so many different things.”
She has also taught Sunday School at Woodside Bible Fellowship and works as a camp counsellor. She also manages to fit time in to play volleyball, another one of her interests. She is currently a member of the Senior Girls Volleyball team at EDSS.
“I really liked volleyball, we had a really amazing team,” she said of the experience. “I enjoyed playing with them and competing. This is my fourth year on the team.”
“Another thing about her is that she’s really kind. She’s a kind person,” added Pavlik. “So she would help other people, and I saw that even in the art room. In an art room, you’re dealing with lots of different personalities and she was very aware of the people in the room. Not many students are caring for the teacher too, and she was even good to me too, which is appreciated. Because teachers don’t always get treated the best by students in the room. So she was very kind like that.”
Her older brother, William Allen, currently studying biomedical sciences at the University of Waterloo, was also voted valedictorian in 2015. Her younger brother Brett is at EDSS in the tenth grade.
