Growing up under the influence of diet culture was a base for freshman Alexis Briner’s healthy lifestyle to become harmful. In the summer of 2019, innocent thoughts to have smaller portions of food ultimately...
Bones ache from sleeping on the hard street, stomachs growl from lack of food and cars honk as they pass by the six and 8-year-old Sayle —now Araya — siblings. Cold days turn into even colder nights,...
Flashback to the summer of 2011, two groups of friends met up at Ballwin Days to enjoy the last moments of summer together. That night, 15-year-old Mackenzie Ware met 16-year-old Brandt Capps, and their...
For many students, the mention of the words “pop quiz” creates a feeling of panic. However, alumnus Grant Aden, class of 2017, and alumna Emily Dickson, class of 2018, have come to know a different...
Not many young students dream of becoming a professional composer for a living; among the few is the freshman Samir Shaik.
Shaik started his composing journey in the sixth grade, including not only...
Sophomore Insang Lee first heard about Pencils for Success (PFS), an Atlanta-based organization providing underprivileged students with school supplies, from his sister. Instantly inspired, Lee started...
Watching her peers gaze over the instrument choices, fourth-grader Anushka Dharmasanam observed that no one was interested in the double bass. Viewing the opportunity to explore a different instrument,...
When junior Lexi Lutz and senior Claire LeDuc went shopping, they felt like they couldn’t find what they wanted. So they decided to create it themselves. LeDuc and Lutz started a clothing business through...
Fixing her high tight ponytail and wiping the sweat from her face, senior Emily O'Connor lightens the mood at practice with a cheesy joke as her team, ICE All-Stars Aftershock, perfects their routine before...
Librarian Brian Welch has always loved books. As a kid, he would check out his books to his friends. He helped open a bookstore from scratch. Now, he has accomplished his dream of working in a library.
Welch...
![Celebrating her journey, freshman Alexis Briner beams brightly with her family. Briner appreciates her parents greatly for their support during her journey with anorexia. “I was still in the depths of [the eating disorder] around the holidays. So there were a lot of meals and I remember I kind of panicked at a few of those. And so I would have to take time out and sometimes we'd have to leave the parties early. And then my parents would be upset because it was very time consuming, [but] they were troopers,” Briner said.](https://pwestpathfinder.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/briner-feat-900x705.jpg)
![Junior Shaleigh Araya (front row, far left) poses with her adoptive family for a picture in 2019. Araya said she owes her success to her family and faith. “God has really helped me in life,” Araya said. “That’s the number one thing I [attribute] to my success. Next comes [the support] of my family and friends.”](https://pwestpathfinder.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/IMG-1923.jpg)
![Alumni Grant Aden and Emily Dickson take a photo with their former Latin teacher Tom Herpel to commemorate their engagement. The two have dated for six years and will be living together in Omaha, Neb. as of summer 2022. “What I'm most excited about getting married is coming back to St. Louis at some point. I think as much as I [pretend] I don't like St. Louis, we definitely want to come back to raise our family,” Dickson said. “I'm looking forward to that, and Grant wants to be a pediatrician. He's just so good with kids. I'm excited about that chapter of our lives.”](https://pwestpathfinder.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/IMG_8191-e1643644632556-900x657.jpg)
![Sharing our Successes Working on a presentation, sophomores Keith Schultz, Andrew Son, and Insang Lee plan upcoming fundraising events for Pencils for Success (PFS). After he heard about the charity in September, Lee founded a St. Louis chapter of PFS. “Helping out others just makes you feel good [because] it makes you feel like you accomplished something that could affect more people than just you,” Lee said.](https://pwestpathfinder.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/09143DB3-7FA6-49A9-A86B-7BEF1FFEDEAF-900x675.jpeg)
![After the winter concert for orchestra in high school, junior Anushka Dharmasanam learns a new piece, Movements III and IV of Britten’s Simple Symphony. Dharmasanam played the double bass for Missouri All-State Orchestra. “I was screaming [when I learned that I made it], and I was at my uncle’s house so we all hugged and celebrated,” Dharmasanam said.](https://pwestpathfinder.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/image1-2-900x601.jpg)
![Posing for a picture, junior Lexi Lutz wears thrifted clothes to promote her brand, Divine Minds. Junior Thomas Anderson and Lutz ran similar businesses and collaborated to advertise each other's items. “[In Spark!] we get unstructured business time to work on our business, so Claire [LeDuc] and I went out and did a photoshoot in our clothing,” Lutz said.](https://pwestpathfinder.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/image1-e1644118949174.jpg)
![Librarian Brian Welch stands with a library cart, preparing to shelve books. He feels that there is a lot that goes into keeping the library organized. “You always try to make yourself busy, because there's a lot to do,” Welch said. “There are things that always can be done. If you look around, you can see that there's stuff going on in this library. It's a working library, and it sometimes looks chaotic [with] stuff everywhere. But that just means we're doing our job and the people are utilizing the space."](https://pwestpathfinder.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/DSC_0012-900x600.jpg)