It’s not hard to find a hardworking student at Woodland. Every corner you turn you can run into at least five students working hard to maintain grades, and participate in extracurriculars. Although many students are like this, one stands out from the crowd. Camille Terrell works hard to maintain her honors status, while also participating in Student Government, preparing for the next Woodland Swim season, and going above and beyond with community service hours.
Terrell works hard to maintain excellent grades,
“I haven’t been high honors every time but I’ve been honors every time,” said Terrell.
Classes themselves are hard enough, but balancing them is a struggle that Terrell handles daily. With an aspiration to be a High School English teacher, she plans on taking ECE English her junior year, and either AP Lang or AP Lit senior year to further her knowledge in the subject. One of Terrell’s favorite activities is reading, although with recent schoolwork she has not had much time for this.
Terrell’s past English teachers have helped her discover her love for the subject. Most notably were Meghan Geary, who Terrell had for freshman English, and Nancy Manning, who Terrell has for sophomore English, both of which were two of her favorite English classes to date.
Like every other teenager, Terrell is not immune to procrastination. She has off-season swim practice from three-thirty to five-thirty and doesn’t get home until six. She works hard to avoid procrastination, and the only way for her to do that is to stay organized,
“I have to be an organized person otherwise everything else would just go downhill, so being organized definitely helps,” said Terrell, “ Making sure I’m on top of things and writing it all down.”
Terrell also actively participates in Woodland’s Student Government as the Sophomore Class Historian, a position that she has had since her Freshman year, and will continue to hold next school year. Although she was not heavily involved in Student Government her freshman year, she worked hard to turn that around her sophomore year. Some things she’s done as Historian these past two years are taking pictures of occasions such as pep rallies, organizing events such the Class of 2020’s bottle and can drive. She was also committee clerk for a committee that plans parties and other such events within Student Government. This required her to take minutes and notes for the committee. Although being a member of Student Government can be challenging, Terrell loves it and plans on continuing her participation throughout the rest of her high school career.
Terrell has been swimming for the past eight years of her life. She started swimming in Naugatuck at seven years old, then moved to swim in Oxford before joining the Long River Middle School Swim Team, and finally joined the Woodland Swim Team. During the off-season, she is currently swimming in Waterbury to prepare for her next season. Her favorite part of swimming at Woodland is the friendships she made with the team,
“If we have a hard practice we’re there for each other and we push each other to get through it, especially this year since all of our hard work paid off winning NVLs.” Alongside Natalie Katrenya, Casey Brooks, Morgan Swift and Aly Rojcov, Terrell plans to lead the swim team to victory as Captain next year.
Terrell volunteers at her church as a Sunday school teacher. When she was in sixth grade and had to decide between volunteering, or going to the main service, she chose to volunteer. Before this year she helped out with small crafts and fun little things, but she now has her own group of about six or seven kids that she works with the first two Sundays of every month. She enjoys volunteering at her church and looks forward to seeing the kids. Terrell has a very special bond, and they all know as soon as they see each other which games they’re going to play.
It’s obvious that Terrell bonds well with children because in addition to Sunday School she also volunteers at United Day Summer Camp in Beacon Falls. Unlike at her church, Camp Terrell does not run a set group of kids. She works with all the kids keeping them busy and spending time with them. At United Day Summer Camp they go on field trips such as Science Museums and Amusement Parks.
Terrell may not think her life is exciting but with being a future junior swim captain, an active participant in Student Government, and lots of volunteering, it’s hard to believe her.
“I don’t have much of an interesting life outside of school,” said Terrell, “but I love hanging out with my friends just normal things that every teenager would do.”
