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Hobbies and interests
Animation
Anime
Archery
Art
Band
Beach
Biology
Chemistry
Crafting
Drawing And Illustration
Dermatology
Dentistry
Flute
French
Learning
Mandarin
Music Composition
Music Production
Music
National Honor Society (NHS)
Piano
Spending Time With Friends and Family
Swimming
STEM
Sabine Wong-Boulanger
1,475
Bold Points1x
Nominee1x
Finalist![user profile avatar](https://static.bold.org/profilePictures/redwallpaper7b68dba75e65417db8c490a71aaa1d00.webp)
Sabine Wong-Boulanger
1,475
Bold Points1x
Nominee1x
FinalistBio
Everyone has something they love. It may be passionate, slightly embarrassing, or even undiscovered.
Below I will tell you about something I love.
The hair on my arms stood as if saluting the poignant sounds singing in my headphones. I was enjoying Joe Hisaishi’s “The Legend of Ashitaka – Ending”, and every time I listen to it, I am filled with emotion. His ability to create a scene with instruments instead of words is a skill I deeply admire.
I like to tell my stories through improvisation on my piano. Here, I let my intuition guide my hands. Unlike algebra, there are no formulas I have to follow. With improvisation, my whims can be explored without consequences, and I don’t have to remember anything.
However, sometimes melodies would arise that I didn’t want to forget, and that encouraged me to delve into the world of composition: a place to store my favorite ideas. I started participating in a composition focused program hosted by the Walla Walla Symphony called “SPARK!”, which became a platform and outlet where I could search for the perfect heart-piercing note to complete my unfinished melodies. Then after, I would hear them come alive through an interpretation performed by the Walla Walla Symphony.
In a way, when it comes to music, I am self-indulgent. My music is an outlet of self-expression; I don’t need the praise of an audience. It keeps me grounded. It’s a way to bring my imaginary worlds to life, starting with a few notes building into a symphonic tale.
Education
Weston Mcewen High School
High SchoolMiscellaneous
Desired degree level:
Master's degree program
Majors of interest:
- Liberal Arts and Sciences, General Studies and Humanities
Career
Dream career field:
Chemicals
Dream career goals:
Lifeguard and Swim Instructor
YMCA2020 – 20233 years
Sports
Swimming
Club2016 – Present8 years
Arts
SPARK!
MusicTwo fully orchestrated scores , Composed background music animation shorts2016 – PresentAnimation and Graphic Novel Club
Animation2020 – Present
Public services
Volunteering
Walla Walla Swim Club — To record the official times of college swimmers.2018 – Present
Future Interests
Advocacy
Volunteering
Philanthropy
Entrepreneurship
Kris Lewis Memorial Scholarship
From a town where the tallest structures are grain silos and “traffic” is caused by a herd of behemoth-like combines, I became a farmer of ambitions.
Athena, Oregon, is a pastoral town buried in scintillating waves of golden wheat framed by verdant carpets of alfalfa. It resembles an idyllic countryside straight out of an Andrew Wyeth painting, or even one of those pre-programmed Microsoft screensavers. It’s a picturesque place, but sometimes I find that isolation eclipses it all.
Take wheat, for example, that one ubiquitous crop that everyone loves, just like the sports teams at my high school. Of course, like wheat, I understand how influential sports can be to fostering community; in fact, I’m proud to be captain of my year-round swim team. But, my taste buds crave for something more than the staple bread that comes from wheat.
I yearned to join a club focused on activities outside the realm of sports. But living out here, those clubs were few; they were an exotic crop yet to be planted in our town.
So, I ventured to sow interest in an animation and graphic novel club at my school. Living in a tiny town fostered my hunger for a boundless world. A world where the only limit was the strength of my will and the scope of my imagination. Animation was the perfect outlet for me to live outside the realm of my wheat fields by providing me access to a variety of cultures through unique art styles and storytelling.
Hoping that fellow dreamers carried similar desires, I set forth to create a club that could act as our portal to another world. But before I could plant this crop, I had to till and fertilize its sterile soil: I needed to have this club idea approved by the school. Since no interest clubs existed, a process to create one didn’t exist either. Plowing forward, I reached out to the principal in hopes of finding a solution. From then on, I frequented her office more than the typical troublemaker to craft a process to build a recognized club. One meeting we considered club criteria and operating policies, another we discussed club recognition steps and bylaws. Soon enough, after approval from our school district's superintendent, everything was set in place, and all I needed were members.
Thankfully, a few supportive friends joined, and together we began hanging posters and advertising the club on the school announcements. Luckily, my desires must have resonated with others because 22% of our class joined the Animation and Graphic Novel Club.
With the seed of my idea firmly planted, the challenge lay in nurturing it. We began by fostering community through meetings where we shared our love of animation and graphic novels, as well as, explored foreign cultures through their versions of animation and snacks. Then we expanded. To earn money to buy art supplies and fund a trip to the FanExpo comic convention in Portland, OR, we started collecting recyclable bottles, and I turned my hobby of drawing into a sticker business. Later, the club was commissioned to guide a youth group in creating a mural. When we were awarded a grant from the local library to enrich our school's literary offerings by creating a graphic novel collection, I knew we had grown our club from a small seed into a luscious crop.
So, yeah, I became a farmer.
I know that wherever my path leads me, I’ll continue sowing the seeds of my dreams, nurturing them into vibrant realities, and watching them flourish on the landscapes of tomorrow.