Congratulations to the Class of 2018 for their triumphant performance of West Side Story this past weekend! This is a very sophisticated and challenging show to expect of 8th graders. Mr. Glover had faith that this talented group of students would rise to the occasion and he was right!

West Side Story is really an opera, a ballet, and a love story all rolled into one. Add to that the fact that the characters are tough gang members in New York City, and you start to get an idea of what these 13- and 14-year-olds had to pull off.

Megan Lee, alumna of the Class of 2014, has been very busy during her four years at Annandale High School! Megan has always been interested in the arts. While at Westminster, she excelled in painting and drawing and even taught herself how to play the ukulele.

While in high school, Megan has become particularly interested in making documentary films. She is now finishing up her IB diploma at Annandale and, as a culminating project for her IB Film class, she and a few other students created and submitted a documentary film called Dreamer. This documentary features a fellow classmate who is an undocumented immigrant. Their documentary has recently been named as one of only eight finalists in the state being screened at the Virginia High School League Film Festival in Charlottesville, VA on June 2. We will have to wait until then to see Dreamer. However, Megan worked on another film last year featuring her lacrosse coach that won Best Documentary and runner-up for Best Picture in Annadale High School. You can view last year's submission here.

In addition to her very busy academic schedule in the IB program, Megan is the captain of her varsity lacrosse team and the president of the English Honor Society. She also helps with photography and videography for the yearbook and other Annandale High School publications.

Megan will attend the VCU Film School this coming fall. She is one of only 25 students to be accepted to this very competitive and prestigious program. Her dream is to become a documentary film maker; she would also love to be a videographer for bands touring around the country!

We asked Megan if her Westminster experience had influenced her choice of career pursuit and she said, "Something that indirectly led me toward making film a major in college is that at Westminster, I never saw the arts as an extreme or out-there kind of career pursuit because the arts were such a part of our core classes, and they were so valued that it never occurred to me that I shouldn't make it a career. Stereotypically, parents or people in general think that you shouldn't want to do anything in the arts because you might not make a lot of money or whatever, but at Westminster, the arts are so respected and I think that's the reason that I never even thought about not going for it."