For my language class in eighth grade at Wydown Middle School, I took Spanish.

I listened to Hispanic newscasts on the weekends, I regularly watched Latin American soap operas and I frequented various Latino chat sites. However, my grades in class did not accurately portray the depth of my passion, and headed into conference week, I was worried about the report my mom was going to hear from my teacher.

However, Señora Christopher did not focus on my difficulty in learning vocabulary or my disinterest in memorizing grammar rules. Instead, she recognized the passion I had and recommended an immersion summer camp as the best place for me to grow my talents.

The summer following eighth grade, I spent two weeks at El Lago del Bosque, a Spanish immersion camp in Bemidji, Minnesota. I attended again the summer after my freshman year, and I joined the staff as a cook the summer of 2014. At El Lago del Bosque, I found the language learning I had been craving. Coupled with the grammar and vocabulary we were learning in school, the intense cultural immersion of the village increased my fluency immensely.

El Lago del Bosque is a huge part of my life and my experiences there have impacted me more than anything else. My love of languages followed me into high school where I continued taking Spanish and started learning French as well.

I do not know what my interests would be or how I would differ as a person if my eighth grade Spanish teacher did not care enough to notice my passion and encourage me to pursue it.

To me, the electives that students choose are far more revealing than the difficulty of the math or science class that they are in. A person’s passions define them, and those passions have the opportunity to be cultivated and explored in the generous amount of elective courses each Clayton student can choose.

Clayton students are incredibly fortunate to have a chance to be such diverse people. The liberty in the schedule of our students and the wide range of classes to choose from exemplifies this diversity.

As the School District’s mission statement says perfectly, “We inspire each student to love learning and embrace challenge within a rich and rigorous academic culture.”

I can only hope that, despite international competition and pressure, the Clayton Schools will continue to set their own standard and be as “rich and rigorous” as before. Not for the numbers, but for each individual student with his or her own interests and goals.