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Westminster Christian School senior Isabella Valdes is heading to the big city in the fall to attend the New York University Tisch School of the Arts for Acting.
This year, WCS Thespians took the much-coveted Critic’s Choice Award at the state contest for their one-act show Just Like Us.
“It’s about four illegal Mexican girls,” she says.
Because of COVID restrictions, the judges saw the performance on video, instead of having it performed on stage.
“We were given the award but we didn’t get the whole experience,” she says. “I played Marisela. The lead role.”
COVID had a big effect on the drama students. Initially, the school switched to making films instead of putting on productions in order to keep the students safe.
“We ended up doing double the work,” she says. “We’re focusing on film.”
They filmed High School Musical: The Movie. She played the role of Sharpay.
Things changed this spring, and as president of Thespians she’s directing a pared down version of Grease that will be performed in front of a live audience. She’s also playing the role of Rizzo in the show.
In early May, the drama students performed in Broadway Nights, a show that featured songs from a variety of Broadway and movie musicals.
She planned to perform I’ll Have Nothing, a song originally sung by Whitney Houston in The Bodyguard.
“I was the first Scholastic Gold Key recipient in Film for WCS and I won this prestigious honor my junior year and senior year plus a Bronze Key as well,” she says.
While Valdes was always busy with acting and dancing, she did take time for community service. Her first two years of high school she participated in school sponsored mission trips to Colombia where they were building a church. The work was hard, dirty but satisfying. She said she signed up for a third trip but it didn’t happen because of the pandemic.
The first year, they spent their time preparing the foundation for the church, including the tedious tasks of grinding rocks, pounding rocks, and mixing them to make the cement for the foundation.
“Everything took so much longer because they were not as technically advanced,” she says.
“We laid out the foundation and the next year we were able to build it up.”
At home, she volunteered with Farm Share on Fridays during COVID. Her family’s bakery, Pinecrest Bakery, teamed up with Farm Share to hand out produce to those in need. The volunteers would fill boxes of produce and put them into the trunks of everyone who lined up in their cars for the free food.
“It was a lot of work,” she says. “A lot of running around, too.”
Another time, using a list of names provided by St. Louis Catholic Church, she and her parents bought Christmas gifts for children and then distributed the toys to numerous homes in Homestead.
She volunteered at St. Louis Church as a youth group leader and she sang with the church band,
Her dance team, the Westminster Warriorettes, also participated in community service, going once a month to area nursing homes and hospitals to dance for the residents.
Valdes and her friend Isabella Ante started the competitive dance team and she’s captain.
“We are the first graduating class to have gone through a four-year dance program,” she says. “I feel fortunate to have left a legacy at Westminster in Film, Drama and Dance, and I am eternally grateful to my school for allowing me to pursue my passions.”
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
