We are now just over three weeks from Graduation for the ILS Class of 2019! It is hard to believe that the year is so quickly nearing its end, but we hope that you are enjoying our look back with our 8th graders as they reflect on both their final year at ILS as well as the years they have spent learning and growing together. This week, we continue our "Meet Us Monday" series with another member of our ILS Class of 2019, and as always, we hope you enjoy!
Meet Us Monday: Reagan B., ILS Class of 2019
1. How long have you attended ILS? 3 years! I came here in 6th grade and as you know, I’m graduating!
2. To what house do you belong, and how have you developed as a person by being involved in it? I belong to Augustine, my sweet dear Augustine. I’m co-captain now with AJ. So far I have enjoyed it, but it’s also sometimes difficult. What’s difficult? The children! Dealing with people can be difficult because we have different ideas on what’s best. But it’s all helped me be a better leader.
I’ve watched three seasons of captains over my time here. They’ve all taught me something. For example, Ella showed me that because she was always respectful to others and cared about them and looked them in the eyes and told the truth, people treated her with respect and felt better about everything. She also taught me not to underestimate people but to look for their strengths and always give them a chance.
When you’re leading PEOPLE, you have to make sure you’re doing what’s best for them and also what’s best for the house. It’s really hard to incorporate those two things, but I’ve gotten better at it. When I deal with people I may not always agree with, this will help me.
3. What was your favorite House competition? In 6th grade we played “Capture the Flag.” We truced with other houses and that was really fun because we moved on to the final round. Then we played against Athanasius and WON the game. That was so exciting for us and we were jumping up and down and screaming. We were really proud of ourselves, and all the other houses were happy for us too. They saw how much we had grown in working together and communicating.
4. What is your favorite ILS memory? (Or, which ILS tradition will you remember the most?) My favorite memory is from Adventure Camp when I was in 7th grade, on the last day. We were really bad at the team building exercises over the whole trip, but on the last day we had to all climb a 10 foot wall. Some people were scared and didn’t want to do it but we had to at least try. And we eventually did it! It was fun to see everyone help each other and feel proud of themselves AND everyone else.
One of my favorite traditions is that the older students get to serve as Chapel Helpers, which means you sit with younger students and help them behave in chapel, or look at the right places in the hymnal. It helps the school be more connected as a whole because you get to know other students and even help other teachers. Plus, they’re just so cute and it’s fun! They sing so loud, and do hand motions to the hymns and you can tell they really know what’s going on. They actually listen to the sermons. It’s amazing to see that these little kids love God and so do I. When I first started here, I was a Chapel Helper right away and now I get to see those same kids who are so much more grown up.
5. Which event did you most look forward to during your 8th grade year? Probably graduation. It’s going to be a sad and happy time because I love ILS so much and everyone here. I promised the girls I’d mention them so we have some girls you’ve already met: Abigail, Kendall, Marie H., Elbethel, and Marie B. We’re all excited to graduate and go to high school but we’ve been at ILS for so long together.
6. What was your favorite class at ILS, and why? I have two favorites. I love literature because we do great projects. This year while studying Animal Farm, Kendall and I turned a song from the book into a real song. Miss C. Davis has read all the books before and knows so much about them. She can help us dig deep and understand the meanings beneath the surface. She opens our eyes and also teaches us how to read a book so we can find the deeper meanings ourselves. While Animal Farm seems like a simple folk tale, we learned how to identify that it’s actually about politics and government structures. It was really cool to connect the dots from the book to what we learn about in history
My other favorite class is logic because we get to explore so many different ideas and get to debate. The fallacies we learn are EVERYWHERE and we’re all starting to become more aware of them all over the place, every day. It helps you think for yourself to realize that not everything you hear is logically correct. I’ve learned how hard it is to persuade people without making fallacious attempts. I’ve also learned when to NOT point out fallacies, like when I hear someone at home commit a red herring which happens ALL THE TIME. For example, if your mom is yelling at you, don’t point out the red herring or you’ll make her more upset. I’ve done it, and it did not go well for me.
7. What was your favorite ILS field trip? Probably the Shakespeare Play we went to a few years ago. I got to learn a lot about my different classmates because we had a really long bus ride. I got to know Abigail a lot more and lots of others too. The play was really fun to experience, but also a little violent. That’s Shakespeare for you!
8. Where are you attending High School? I’ll be attending Trinity Christian School. I’m really excited because they give wonderful opportunities to students but also focus on your faith. I think it’s hard to find a good school that cares about your walk with Christ. I’m also excited because we can eat in class and wear hoodies. THAT will be fun! I’ll also have a computer for school. I had the choice to take an AP art class or a class on personal finance, and my parents made me choose the class on personal finance so I guess that’s one thing I’ll be learning next year. The silver lining is that this will help give me extra knowledge so that I can buy a car in a few years!
9. What will you miss the most about ILS? Definitely the teachers! And the people. The teachers are different. They really want to be there for you and help people learn, even changing what the experience of middle school is supposed to be like. So many people tell me that middle school is the worst time of your life and how much I’d hate it, but that’s not the case at Immanuel, where we’re constantly being lifted up about the faith and not torn down or attacked. Middle school has actually been a lot of fun for me at ILS. We’re not just some learning machines to the teachers, but they really care about you as more than a student. You can tell that everyone who graduates feels the same way because they come back to see their old teachers.
10. What is something a teacher told you that you will never forget? Mr. Schultz always told the whole class that we could always do better and that he believed in us. It was really great because you might put yourself down when you got a bad grade, but it was hard to do that all the time with Mr. Schultz. One time he told me: “You can ALWAYS try more because you’re capable of more.” That was really nice to hear because I know he believed I could do it. It was encouraging, every day.