Looking Back: Reflections from a Waldorf Graduate

Ezra Citron
WHWS Class of 2004

Graduated: Wheaton College, 2012
Major: Chemistry
Currently: Software Engineer, | Seattle, WA

What did you enjoy most about your experience at WHWS?

Games class! The Potlatch (Coast Salish Cultural Sharing) and Olympiad were also both a lot of fun. Performing "The Odyssey" in fifth grade was another big favorite; I was Antinous, the ringleader suitor courting Penelope and plotting the death of her son. I especially enjoyed watching Mr. Doucette light oil on fire during one of our Chemistry blocks. Mr. Doucette's teaching was a big reason that I was drawn to math and science and pursued those areas in college.

How was your transition to high school?

I felt prepared academically and I think the transition went quite well. It was a little hard socially, but I played sports at Kulshan Middle School and had some friends going in, so that was definitely very helpful. I also did Cross Country training the summer before entering high school and had good friends from that by the time that school started. I would actually recommend Cross Country summer training for every 8th grade graduate, even if they aren't planning to actually compete in the sport during high school. It's a great way to meet a bunch of nice kids before school even starts and it really teaches you good habits regarding self-motivation and hard work.

What was your path after high school?

After I graduated from Wheaton College with a degree in Chemistry, I spent about 6 weeks in Namibia and Botswana for an internship in applied analytical chemistry with an organization that does research and conservation work with large carnivores. I did mostly fieldwork: tracking lions and leopards with radio-collars, observing and recording their behavior, and accumulating GPS data to analyze their movement patterns. Then in 2016, I graduated from Western Washington University with a masters in Environmental Sciences.

What skills, learned at WHWS, help you now?

Waldorf taught me to really care about the quality of my work for the sake of learning itself. Probably because of this, I was often called an "over-achiever" throughout high school and college, but I think that not being overly grade-driven—doing work because I actually care about it—helped me to get the most out of school. My peers in high school definitely performed for a test, to get the grade.

One specific skill I learned at Waldorf that has been really useful is knowing how to sew. For instance, while traveling in Europe my backpack got a huge rip in it and would have been unusable had I not been able to patch it up. I also think that having exposure to two foreign languages from first grade on contributed to my interest in learning languages and most definitely has helped me in my studies of Spanish and French.