Alumni News - WNS | Westside Neighborhood School

Selah Johnson ‘22 spent the fall election cycle traveling across the city of Los Angeles to document communities of color and their feelings about impactful issues on the ballot. As a documentarian for Global Girl Media Team, Selah and her girls recently won the Liberty Award, earning a $5,000 cash prize from Spark The Vote Challenge. Take a look at their incredible work here https://vimeo.com/1025657914. Selah is also a national leader for DemocraShe, a non-profit that teaches high school girls across the country in a 10-week, online program, skills to build self-confidence, self-advocacy, cultivate collaboration, nurture ambition and make leadership concrete and accessible. Selah is in her junior year at Archer School For Girls, serving as 11th grade Student Council Rep. She’s very busy with service initiatives, musical theater and dance. She spent this past summer taking a pre-college course at Brown University and is exploring colleges and universities that offer strong programs in Film/Theater and Social Policy. Selah also played the role of Lisa in Archer’s Upper School production of Mamma Mia. 

Sydney Moses ‘17 is a published author, again! Since her first published poem in 2023 she has published some more poetry and even some short stories too. She has her own website where you can check out her work. Take a look, here. Sydney Moses is a senior at Beloit College where she is pursuing a double major in anthropology and creative writing. She has been writing her whole life and hopes to work in publishing in the future. Sydney’s goal is to write middle grade fantasy books with Jewish characters that include Jewish and Polish mythology.

On October 5, 2024 WNS Alumni Kye Davis (‘21) and EJ Vernon (‘21) faced off head to head during a rivaled high school basketball event, Battle by the Beach. Kye is currently playing his junior year at Palisades High School and EJ is a Senior at Crossroads. The former WNS teammates were featured in the NXTUP Hoops Instagram promoting it as a Premier Matchup. Both players are poised to have breakout seasons. Good luck boys!

Selah Johnson (’22) – who now making waves at Archer School for Girls – came in third place for the whole state of California at the Poetry out Loud competition. Poetry Out Loud is a national arts program that supports students in mastering public speaking skills, building self-confidence, and learning about literary history and contemporary life. She traveled to the Capitol Building in Sacramento to compete in the final, and was the youngest competitor to participate. We are so proud of Selah, who started at WNS in kindergarten and already showed her poetry prowess from a young age.

Take a look at this original poem that Selah wrote and performed when she was in middle school at WNS, titled ‘My Black Joy’.

Joseph (Jomar) Pierson (’14) is a Fulbright Scholar in Taiwan, teaching English and learning Chinese. Jomar attended WNS beginning in 2005 where he was able to participate in many of our project-based learning approaches. One in particular was WNSville which he said has greatly impacted his educational trajectory. During his time in Taiwan he is exploring how to incorporate the critical skills found in WNSville into the Taiwanese public school systems curriculum. Jomar attended Loyola High School and  Loyola Marymount University, where he completed a B.A and a M.A in English. He will be attending law school next school year at either Berkeley, University of Chicago, or University of Virginia, specializing in educational policy and Artificial Intelligence IP!

Dean Osborne (‘15) graduated from the University of Miami in 2023 with a major in Business Management and minors in Architecture and Exercise Physiology. He obtained his real estate license in 2021 and is currently working in commercial real estate in Westchester. He has also been following a passion of his and is currently taking some culinary classes in Los Angeles. He has been fortunate enough to participate in the medical missions on their last two trips to Guatemala. On each medical mission they partner with a local children’s non-profit to support the communities most vulnerable children. Dean has been leading these impact missions since 2022. 

Taylor Osborne (‘13) graduated from the University of Miami in 2021 with a major in Health Sciences and a minor in Public Health. She’s been participating in medical missions with her father since 2016. The team has been to Ethiopia, India, Belize, Peru, and Guatemala. Her love of medicine has led her to pursue a passion she’s had since she was 8 years old. She is currently enrolled at UCLA/Drew Medical School. She’s not sure what her specialty will be but is leaning towards becoming an Otolaryngologist (ENT – Ear, Nose, and Throat doctor). Fun fact…the Osborne’s were assigned to be a host family for an incoming WNS 6th grade family while they were here and that student is now Taylor’s roommate!

Marlee Porter (‘20) was featured for her original poem on the CBS Original Show, The Talk, in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Day. Marlee’s poem is called ‘A Dream Realized’ that starts out by saying, “I can’t quite wrap my head around the definition of a Changemaker. A series of adjectives strung together that society has collectively decided gets assigned to an elite few. Well, I can guarantee I didn’t know what a changemaker was in the second grade, when a classroom full of eager eight year old faces were told to embody one. The boy to my left pleaded for someone in particular. His hand shot up and in full exclamation he stated, I want Dr. King! He said it was because he, too, had a dream.” Marlee’s poem goes on to describe the boy’s dream amid the struggles the black community has and continues to face. And, even amongst the challenges there is still a story of hope that Dr. King’s dream has been realized. Marlee attended WNS in the second grade where she participated in the grade’s Changemaker Project. It’s amazing to see that this project has stuck with her and has inspired this powerful piece. We are so proud that she is now sharing her heart and wisdom with the world.

You can watch her recite the full poem on here!

Seela Kapoor (‘20) was recently accepted to her first-choice college, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona, Florida for Aeronautical Science! She is waiting on a few more acceptance letters before making her final decision but this is an exciting start to her college journey. Leading up to this Seela has been taking pilot lessons at the Santa Monica Airport and in November took her first flight! She is also a part of the Aerial Drone Club at Pacific Christian High School where they will be competing in the 2024 Western Regionals and Nationals for Aerial Drone Competitions. Continue shooting for the stars, Seela! WNS is cheering for you.

Grace Rector (‘13) was selected for the Fulbright Scholarship to serve as a University Professor in Casablanca, Morocco for one year. The Fulbright scholarship was created to promote cross cultural exchange between the United States and other countries. Currently she spends her time in Casablanca teaching Oral Communication, Public Speaking, and Debate, and in her free time she’s taking intensive Arabic classes to support her goal of working in international education and development in Washington DC. The grant also supports participants with pursuing community engagement projects, and currently Grace is offering teaching training workshops through the American Language Center. She connects the work she’s currently involved in with several WNS memories including a dynamic immersion Spanish class with Señora Paul and she proudly teaches others the pledge to the earth that she recited everyday for 9 years in the WNS MPR.