Alumni News

Zoie Soars To New Heights In The Show Jumping World

Zoie Brogdon (‘19) was featured in a Financial Times article of the Top Ten International Show Jumpers to Watch. The article features an impressive list of international show jumpers including Zoie and Jessica Springsteen –  an US Olympic Silver Medal winner that Zoie recently completed a clinic with. Zoie also had her first Sports Illustrated (SI Online) video and written interview that previewed on November 19, 2021. The article is titled, How 16-Year-Old Equestrian Athlete Zoie Brogdon Is Making a Mark in Her Sport. To follow along on Zoie’s journey you can follow her on Instagram at @iamzoienoelle. The Brogdon family thanks WNS for always believing in Zoie and encouraging her to follow her passion.

Imani Takes The Arts By Storm

Imani Pullum (‘17) is a freshman at NYU’s Tisch School of The Arts, majoring in Experimental Theatre. Imani has always been a performer, but fell into a deeper love of acting during her time at WNS. Under the direction of Dr. Desi Cameron, the Theater Arts Program at WNS became a second home to Imani and she took every opportunity she was given to perform in the school’s productions. It was actually Dr. Cameron, Ms. Reimann, and Mr. Zacuto who encouraged Imani to accept the role of Nala in the national touring company of The Lion King, during the first half of her seventh grade year at WNS. She was supported with an asynchronous WNS education while traveling the country with The Lion King tour. Imani returned to WNS just in time to enjoy the second half of her seventh grade year. Now, Imani hasn’t allowed any grass to grow under her feet and recently wrapped filming on a network television show, premiering March 2022. Imani is currently on location, filming a major motion picture. She’s been sworn to secrecy until the film wraps, but look for our very own WNS Jet on the big screen in the very near future.

Hope Launches ‘Bored of Boredom’ To Address Educational Inequality

Hope Shinderman (‘17) is currently attending Columbia University as a freshman! During the pandemic she started a not-for-profit organization called, Bored of Boredom, to address learning loss during the times of Covid-19 and educational inequality in general. Bored of Boredom is a student-run organization committed to providing free educational enrichment for all. They offer group classes and individual tutoring. She believes that their mission is truly predicated upon the values that were instilled in her during her time at WNS. Hope was recently awarded the National Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Award (Tikkun Olam means repairing the world in Hebrew) for her work on Bored of Boredom. Please take a look at their website, boredofboredom.org to learn more.

Joshua Curl Set To Graduate From Chico State

Joshua Curls (‘12) is currently a senior at Chico State majoring in business marketing and will be graduating in May 2022. He was granted a final year of NCAA eligibility to play on Chico’s basketball team after the 2020-2021 season was canceled due to Covid-19. During his time at Chico state he was on the Dean’s Honor List for 5 semesters and a two time CCAA All-Academic recipient. Though he has always strived to be the best student athlete he can be, he knows his time playing basketball will soon come to an end once this final season is over. He is currently in the process of applying to several law schools in California and will be taking the LSAT this November.

Brendan Craig makes waves at LMU & on the Red Carpet

Brendan Craig (‘14) is currently a junior journalism major at Loyola Marymount University and was recently featured in the student newspaper of LMU called, The Los Angeles Loyolan. The headline reads, Meet Brendan Craig: LMU student, sports broadcaster and Oscars production assistant. The article highlights his recent work at the university producing Lions Athletics on the WCC Network, calls play-by-play for the women’s basketball team, organizes staffing and logistics for the broadcast department and has even led production for the Iggy Awards. He has also gotten to work on events like NFL Kickoff, the 2020 Academy Awards and the iHeartRadio Music Awards. He has even done stage management on movie premieres for “Booksmart,” “The Lion King” and “Avengers: Endgame.” Most recently, he started working part-time as a stage manager for the Los Angeles Football Club (LAFC) of Major League Soccer. In the article it states that Brendan got his start in stage production during his middle school days (at WNS) where he was a part of the Spring Musical Elective for the Little Mermaid Junior. To read the full article, click here.

Ella Parker to play Sooners Softball!

Ella Parker (‘19) is a Junior at Notre Dame High School where she plays for their varsity softball team. During the 2021 season she was named the League MVP, All-CIF, All-State and made the All-LA Times team. Ella just recently announced she has committed to playing for The University of Oklahoma on a softball scholarship after she graduates high school. She is beyond grateful for this opportunity. She had other scholarship offers from the University of Florida, Duke, and UCLA, and had a trip lined up to the University of Arizona. While Ella was a student at WNS, she was the starting pitcher who helped take her team to 3 Pacific Basin League titles and 2 Delphic League titles. Ella was the first player to hit a home run out of our home field. Congratulations to Ella! We can’t wait to watch you play at OU!

Ceyair Stars On The Screen And The Field!

Ceyair Wright (‘17) – was recently featured in a LA Times article about his time at Loyola high school, being a USC football recruit and playing Lebron James’ son in the new movie, Space Jam 2. See the published article, here. Ceyair played flag football among other sports while attending WNS!

We were thrilled to have recently welcome Ceyair and his fellow classmates back onto campus at a recent Class of 2017 Alumni event!

Arjun Takes The Championship!

Arjun Vadgama (’17) won the 1600m championship for CIF back in June 2021. Arjun started running track at WNS in 8th grade, setting the school record here in the 800m and went on to run at Loyola High School. Arjun will run cross country and track this year at UC Berkeley.

We recently welcomed Arjun and his fellow WNS classmates back to campus for our Class of 2017 Alumni event!

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!