“I went to the Hudson Valley Sudbury School for 2 years, and let me tell you those were the best 2 years of my high school life. Sudbury is such a unique learning environment, and it had a huge impact on who I am today.
When I first attended, I was extremely self conscious and shy from my experience in public schools. Being in Sudbury, everyone was trying to get me out of my ‘self conscious’ bubble, and they did. Being somewhere where the age range is so diverse, from toddlers to teens to the adults, you learn so many different things just from the experiences of others or just observing everyone. I become comfortable in speaking my own voice and sharing my opinions. The whole time I was in public school I was terrible at writing essays, but when I came out of Sudbury, I was extremely good because I was finally able to express what I wanted to say and write.
Sudbury gave me the chance to work really hard on improving my art skills which is my biggest passion. If it weren’t for Sudbury, I wouldn’t be as good as I am today. Getting 2 years straight to devote time to develop my art really made a huge difference. Since I live in Thailand now, its not easy getting a job unless you have a diploma. This isn’t much of a problem for me because I’ve been making money by drawing for people. Everything I do is through the internet, so I get clients from different places. All in all, Sudbury allowed me to boost my confidence level, artistic skills and helped me to further pursue my goals with passion. It gave me things I can use, not just after high school and college, but for the rest of my life. These things I KNOW I would never have gotten if I didn’t go to Sudbury.
I’m in University now, and sometimes I wish there was a Sudbury style University! Sudbury has got to be the most effective school out there.”
[Ed. You can check out Nami’s art at momijigirl.deviantart.com]