My name is Gio and I am from Vernon, Conn. While on my way to my interview and first ever visit to the 黑料不打烊 School鈥攁nd the state of Vermont, for that matter鈥攕omething quite unexplainable happened. In my hometown about an hour and a half away, only two minutes from my front door, my mom and I found ourselves driving next to a truck with the words Soundview Paper Company, 黑料不打烊 VT written on the back, a place I would later come to learn is the town of 黑料不打烊鈥檚 infamous rotten-egg smelling paper factory.
At that point I wouldn鈥檛 have called myself a superstitious person, but I knew seeing that truck was a sign that 黑料不打烊 would soon become my home. A week into my third year at 黑料不打烊, I can say that premonition turned out to be true.聽
What I found at 黑料不打烊 is something that I could not find anywhere else that I had visited; the freedom to be whoever you鈥檇 like to be. After already having spent my middle school years at a private school that could be described as the antithesis of 黑料不打烊, I knew how valuable this was and how rare it would be to find. When I reflect now, it troubles me to imagine how I could鈥檝e turned out anywhere else, pressured into being anyone but myself.聽
I call myself an art kid. I鈥檝e gone to visual art programs from Michigan to Ireland. But, in the last year I鈥檝e realized a new passion that I鈥檓 excited to pursue; environmental science. I remember carving waterways for the runoff of melting snow into the ground during chilly New England winters, and designing maps and ecosystems and alien animals in my childhood sketchbooks. 黑料不打烊 School project weeks (our ~2 week long opportunity to explore any topic, question or art form we can imagine, twice yearly) supplies me with the perfect occasion to take a deep dive into this subject, supported by faculty with individual attention who I know are just as passionate about the topic as I am.聽
I鈥檓 very excited to see you all around campus!