A column to showcase the community we have built here at West County and highlight certain students and teachers who have been a part of that community.

Andrea Benito Chino – Culinary:

“I love the culinary program at West County because I’m always looking forward to it. Although it can get a little nerve-wracking towards the end when we’re hurrying to finish our dish, it’s always so exciting to see our creation at the end and then try it! Seeing something you make come to life is a really cool experience, whether it be pasta, bagels, or toffee! The class environment helps make culinary that much more exciting as well, so there’s that too. I’m definitely looking forward to culinary 2 next year and would recommend that everyone take culinary at least once during their high school years.”

Mr. Lambert – Drama:

“There are several things I love about teaching theatre. The first is that students are creating art in a collaborative setting. It takes a team to put on a production. We have a production team of about 40 students, including students from drama, choir, and band. We have even received help from the woodshop class in building our set and students from video will often film our productions. It takes a village, I love the collaboration aspect. I also enjoy how organic theatre is. You must have an audience to have a performance. The audience and actors feed off each other. Their energy is sent back and forth like a figure eight. Any moment created on stage only happens that one time. You’ll never have the exact same audience or performance making it a very organic form of art. I want students to feel this energy and rush of being on stage. By experiencing this, students can open up and feel more comfortable in front of groups of people while becoming better communicators. The last reason is that theatre and my former theatre teachers had an incredibly positive influence in my life and I would love to foster that inspiration and creativity in other students. I hope that the students that leave my class continue to create art aimed at having a positive impact within their community.

The Spring Production is looking great. This production has been a challenge for the actors and tech crew alike. While the actors have the difficulty of learning musical numbers that require singing and dancing at the same time, our production team is tasked with the creation of a giant plant puppet. The band has been hard at work and sounds fantastic. We just had our first couple rehearsals with the band and actors together. It is awesome seeing everything come together. The students have been working really hard and the hard work they’re putting in is very evident. We will be jumping into tech week right after Spring break and are super excited for our opening night on April 8th.”

Sienna Fasset – Dance:

“Our dance program at West County has been able to have two amazing shows this year! The most recent, ‘Music in Motion’ was the first, since the consolidation, to include all classes in the program (beginning, intermediate, advanced). As someone who was a part of the program at El Molino since freshman year, it is great to see new students joining the program and putting on beautiful shows like this one! I am particularly proud of all of the dance 1 students for working so hard on what, for many of them, was their first ever dance show! I am very excited for our final show of the year in May and for the future of the West County Dance program!”