|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Westminster Christian School senior Alexa Arner loves a good book. She’s also interested in women’s equality. Those two interests were brought into sharp focus in a pre-college summer program at Duke University on the Representation of Women in Greek and Roman Culture that she took going into her junior year.
“The women were viewed as second-class citizens in society,” she says. “The literature was the same.”
Her interest in the subject motivated her to do her Capstone research project on gender stereotypes in romance novels by top selling contemporary author Emily Henry. Henry is the author of Book Lovers and People We Meet on Vacation and many more.
“Emily Henry sold five million books in one year,” she says. “People find her characters relatable because she has an even balance between male and female stereotypes.”
Arner is a member of Twenty Little Working Girls, a community service club.
“We partner with other organizations like the Chapman Partnership for the Homeless and Breakthrough Miami,” she says. “I go to Breakthrough, and I work with the kids on the weekend.”
When she volunteers, she goes to the Breakthrough at Carrolton because that’s the one that Twenty Little Working Girls partners with.
Members of the service organization must complete a minimum of five shifts a year. The majority of her shifts were with Breakthrough along with shifts at the homeless facility.
“We did a Halloween festival at Chapman in homestead,” she says. “There are a lot of kids that live on the property.”
At Westminster, Arner is president of the Thespian Honor Society and the troupe. The big show this school year is In the Heights written by Lin Manuel Miranda. Last year she was Belle in Beauty and the Beast and the year before that, she was Cinderella in Into the Woods.
“I’ve done theater since I was at Westminster,” she says. “I’ve been taking voice lessons since I was young, and I did theater outside of school.”
Her vocal training was done at the Encore Academy of the Arts. She was in two plays at the Area Stage Conservatory when she was younger.
This past April, Arner put together a benefit concert with her fellow musical theater students with the proceeds going to Breakthrough.
“We are planning to do it again this (school) year,” she says.
In college, she plans to major in business on a pre-law track. She wants to be an entertainment lawyer. A minor in musical theater is also a possibility.
She’s looking at the Florida schools including Florida State, the University of Miami, and Florida International University. Other colleges include New York University and Fordham.
Her interest in law had her interning this past summer in the offices of Judge Andrea Wolfson, the former administrative judge for the Eleventh Circuit.
At school, she’s in Student Leadership, she sings at the weekly chapels, and she’s president of Rho Kappa.
“Last year the president handled signed up students to vote,” she says. “I’m going to set up a table to sign up students for the next election.”
Arner is also a student ambassador. She was selected by the facility to give a speech at Open House about why Westminster is the perfect fit for her.
In addition to all her other activities, Arner played lacrosse for Westminster. She tore her ACL her freshman year, took a year to recover and rediscovered her love for musical theater.
She continues to play golf on the varsity golf team and is grateful the coach is flexible about her schedule to accommodate both golf and musical theater.
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
ABOUT US:
For more Miami community news, look no further than Miami Community Newspapers. This Miami online group of newspapers covers a variety of topics about the local community and beyond. Miami’s Community Newspapers offers daily news, online resources, podcasts and other multimedia content to keep readers informed. With topics ranging from local news to community events, Miami’s Community Newspapers is the ideal source for staying up to date with the latest news and happenings in the area.
This family-owned media company publishes more than a dozen neighborhood publications, magazines, special sections on their websites, newsletters, as well as distributing them in print throughout Miami Dade County from Aventura, Sunny Isles Beach, Miami Beach, Coral Gables, Brickell, Coconut Grove, Pinecrest, South Miami, Kendall, Palmetto Bay, Cutler Bay and Homestead. Each online publication and print editions provide comprehensive coverage of local news, events, business updates, lifestyle features, and local initiatives within its respective community.
Additionally, the newspaper has exclusive Miami community podcasts, providing listeners with an in-depth look into Miami’s culture. Whether you’re looking for local Miami news, or podcasts, Miami’s Community Newspapers has you covered. For more information, be sure to check out: https://communitynewspapers.com.
If you have any questions, feel free to email Michael@communitynewspapers.com or Grant@communitynewspapers.com.
