“Do you feel you are an artist?” I asked.
Kingston High School senior Lajoie Bradley, skilled Debate Team member with a National Forensic League Degree of Distinction, paused for a thoughtful moment and responded, “Yes! Interpretive Reading is a performing art because it requires one’s own interpretation of the piece.”
Fine Arts Boosters’ Featured Artist for March is a world traveler who came to KHS two years ago from Japan. She lived there for five years with her military father, mother, 5-year-old twin brothers, and another brother who is a junior at KHS. Lajoie is ecstatic in her memories of life in Japan. While there she began digging deeply into world events, “well beyond what one hears in the news,” in the Model UN Program, and learned a lot about Iran.
“Most people do not know what is truly going on in individual countries.”
After two years of Debate, coached by the award-winning teacher De’ McKinnon and coach Lasica Crane, Lajoie qualified for the state tournament at the University of Puget Sound in mid-March. Lajoie’s Interpretive Reading is from Terry Tempest Williams’ book, “Refuge,” a love story set in Great Salt Lake in Utah. For this Debate category, the piece is memorized but the debater acts as if reading it.
Lajoie has a love for her Pacific Northwest environment. She finds hope in how aware folks here are of the importance of sustainable agriculture, healthy food, and the focus on farmers markets and local restaurants. She loves to cook, exploring new recipes and techniques. Besides cooking, she loves to read biology textbooks for fun! KHS biology teacher Ms. Pavlich “is great at teaching,” Lajoie said, and has inspired her to go on in school, perhaps to Cornell University, focusing on teaching and research in biology and botany. Lajoie compared trees with people in their methods of growth and survival and seemed truly awed by this.
Seventeen-year-old Lajoie’s travel experiences are impressive. Her mother is French, hence her difficult-to-pronounce name, (unless one knows French,) and she has been to France and Slovakia.
“I love Europe and its culture,” Lajoie said. She wishes “everyone could live somewhere for at least two months and have experience of life there and not as a tourist.”
The consummate volunteer admits, “My GPA suffers with so many activities, but to me a valuable education is a mix of good academics and first-hand cultural knowledge.”
Because she had recently helped out at the Boys & Girls Club fundraiser — “I love helping and interacting with the talented kids at KMS” — FAB member Sally Christy signed her and the Key Club up to help at the Kitsap 99% Spring Gathering on March 24 at the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribal Center. “My wish for the future is that people would become more involved in their community. It is appreciated when people take part,” Lajoie said.
Ways you can meet and appreciate FAB students, and have fun at the same time, are to attend student events. Upcoming events include the “Once Upon a Mattress” musical at North Kitsap High School, March 1-4; KHS Band Spring Concert, March 6; Choir Talent Show, March 9; Vocal Showcase, March 20; Festival of the Arts in May, (all at KHS). Volunteer to be a Debate judge on March 3.
Check out FAB’s new website at www.khsfab.org (under construction) and our Facebook page. — Marilyn Bode writes FAB Spotlight. Contact her at Lidenbode@aol.com.
