Hannah Lawrence

Anilee wows us on American Idol!

Anilee List (‘14) was one of the Top 24 contestants on American Idol, Season 19, in April 2021. Read her feature article Meet Anilee List from American Idol Season 19 | Idol Chatter & Voice Views! Anilee currently studies at Berklee College of Music in Boston, where she has performed with acclaimed A Cappella group Pitch Slapped. She was named a 2018 U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts and a 2017 Youngarts Finalist.

Anilee courageously found her voice on stage after being diagnosed with Tourettes Syndrome while a student at WNS. Anilee starred in many of our shows and most recently performed at WNS during her alumni class reunion with her fellow alumni classmate, Emily Dietz (who is a USC student in the vocal jazz department) back in 2018.

True’s debut album is out now!

True Jackson (‘18) has released her first album! Here is the link to check it out! True is just 16 years old and has been writing music since she was 10. Over this past summer, she decided to finally start releasing it. She recorded 12 songs in 9 days with her friends from Missouri. They chose 8 to focus on and those were the ones for her new album which was released on October 24, 2020. Her goal is to keep releasing music that helps people through their struggles or when they just want to have fun! Check out her featured album in Forbes Magazine, here!

Zoie wins multiple awards for her artwork

Zoie Brogdon’s (‘19) original artwork has graced the cover of the Cross Sections Summer 2020 magazine, Black Lives Matter issue. Her artwork has recently won the following awards:  

• GOLD  in the InspirED School Marketers Brilliance Awards! Here is one of the judge’s comments: “I love that a student’s art is used to illustrate this very powerful and important subject. The cover is striking. The artist’s portrait engages the reader eye to eye and dares them to look away from the subject at hand.”

• SILVER in the CASE District VII Circle of Excellence Awards. District VII represents Arizona, California, Guam, Hawaii, Nevada, Northern Mariana Islands and Utah; the competition is open to not just independent schools, but also to colleges and universities, which typically sweep most of the awards. In fact, this is the first time in Crossroads history that they’ve ever placed in this competition.

Here is a story about Zoie’s wins (along with two other student artists) in a recent news story.

Daryn heads to UCSB

Daryn Siegel ‘17 received a D1 softball scholarship to UCSB! 

Daryn was a part of the first championship softball team during her 6th grade year at WNS. She then led the team to another banner the following year. During her 8th grade season, the WNS softball team went on to win both the Pacific Basin League and Delphic League!

We are so proud and wish her many great seasons ahead!

Brendan Plays For Michigan

Brendan Brisson (‘15) was featured in a South Bay magazine recently sharing that he will play hockey for the University of Michigan’s 2020-21 season.

Grace Rector Becomes A Published Author!

In April 2021 Grace became a published author! It took 10 months to complete and the book The Rector Girls has launched on Amazon (as a Paperback and Ebook)! When Grace was a little girl, she would write short stories about princesses and princes and pirates. She’d write them down in her sparkly journals and keep them to herself. Then in middle school and high school, she says she had fantastic English teachers that encouraged her to write fictional stories and to journal about her thoughts. That is when she learned about her love for storytelling. This passion has culminated in the launch of her first published book, The Rector Girls! On June 4th Grace hosted a Book Launch + Signing Party! 

Kalyn Mason (‘18)

The COVID-19 Pandemic did not stop Kalyn, a junior at Marymount High School, from pursuing her goals last year. During the summer of 2020, Kalyn participated in the USC Annenberg Youth Academy for Media and Civic Engagement (USC AYA). Even though this camp was completely virtual, Kalyn was able to obtain valuable knowledge in her preferred field of interest, Journalism. She was also able to correspond with influential individuals

in this field, including ABC Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott and Fox-11 News co-anchor Elex Michaelson. After attending this program, Kalyn went on to write several articles which were published in the school’s newspaper, The Anchor. These articles focused on COVID-19 in professional sports, the impact of distance learning on Los Angeles Unified School District students, and her personal experience in the USC AYA program (see articles below). Recently, she also participated in her church’s Black History Month Celebration by reciting Amanda Gorman’s Presidential Inauguration poem, “A Hill We Climb.” Kalyn’s extracurricular activities do not stop there. She is currently the Co-Vice President of Marymount’s Black Student Alliance, volunteers with the Minority Psychology Network, and is preparing to compete on the Marymount varsity soccer and softball teams. Moving forward, Kalyn hopes to finish her Junior year strong and spend the summer working in an internship or participating in another journalism related summer program.

https://mhsanchor.org/student-life/2020/12/14/my-experience-at-uscs-aya-program/ 

https://mhsanchor.org/athletics/2020/10/12/the-return-of-professional-sports/

https://mhsanchor.org/opinion/2020/10/12/inequities-in-education-lausd-remote-learning/