Interview conducted by William Chui
William: Alright, so what's something you're passionate about?
Claire: Well, I think yes, I've been really involved in the dance community. I feel like, especially with choreo, it really fosters the community. Everyone's so welcome, yeah like, I was talking to a friend who goes to another school and when she came to see choreo she's like I've never seen anything like it and I'm just like, so passionate about how warm everybody is.
William: What's been your favorite show?
Claire: Okay, this is so hard. I think my favorite show was Choreo this year. I might be biased because I co directed it with Sabrina and Elena, but it was like lowkey the best Choreo show ever.
William: That was the only Choreo I’ve been in and yeah, you guys were really great directors. [Claire laughs] What's one of your favorite songs?
Claire: Okay, let me check, I need to check. I can't think of one off the top of my head. I think maybe the song I choreographed for Choreo to “Feels Like,” it's just like a very sentimental piece. It's like a piece of my friends—my best friend and I, it's kind of our song and we got to see her live and singing it. And it was just really special to us.
William: What's one thing on your bucket list?
Claire: I think in college, I want to get better at…hmm. I wanted to try—okay, I wrote about this in one of my college essays saying how I want to try slam poetry, which is so random because like that's like nothing I would ever do. But I think it would be really cool to maybe try once in my life.
William: Were you thinking about doing that at the poetry reading?
Claire: Well, I took poetry last year, and I wanted to read one of my poems, but I didn’t get to. I think it'd be really cool.
William: What drew you to slam poetry?
Claire: I've watched like slam poetry on YouTube. And I just like love seeing how passionate people get. Yeah, and then it just gets really emotional and I think with other forms of art like visual or dance and stuff, it's just like, it's so amazing to see their voices get really emotional.
William: Alright. So what’s been one of your favorite memories here at College Prep in your four years?
Claire: I think—oh, my senior Intraterm trip was so fun. We got to go to Hawaii. And I just got to room with like three other girls who were my best friends and it was so fun to just go on hikes together. Although the hikes were quite difficult at times, I think like living in a shared space with people, it's just like, so intimate and like you get to really know people and yeah, I just love that.
William: That’s really nice. So have you changed during your time at CPS?
Claire: Hmmm. I think I've been able to know how to foster really good relationships with people because I realized that like with my close circle of friends, it's just like very close friendships. And I feel like I hadn't been able to do that before and even with my relationships with like, for example, girls in the dance community. I feel like they're also very close and I feel like CPS has kind of like maybe just the culture of people here but they kind of equipped me with the skill set of how to really spend time with people and make it known that you care about them.
William: Fascinating. And the final question is, what are some words of advice you’d like to share with incoming classes?
Claire: I always say this, but be patient with yourself. Take care of yourself. You got this!
William: Great words of wisdom.
Claire: Exactly. Simple. [laughs]
William: Thank you so much for your time!
Claire: Yes, of course. Thank you!