CWA is a college preparatory school from the very first days of Beginning School right through graduation.  When students apply for college their senior year, their decisions about where they’ll go next in life are of great interest to the faculty, staff, students and parents in all three divisions.  That’s why this year we’re going to bring you the stories of a number of members of the class of 2010 as they decide, one by one, where they’ll go to college.  

One of the very first CWA students to make a college choice this year is Victoria Portnow.  Tori lives in Des Moines with her father, step-mother and four younger siblings.  Her sister Alex is in the eighth grade at Charles Wright and her brother David is in Beginning School.  Tori came to Charles Wright her freshman year of high school.  She gets up at 5:30am every morning, catches the CWA bus a few miles from her house, and falls right back to sleep on the bus ride to school.

Like many CWA students, Tori initially found the academic rigor of CWA’s programs a bit of an adjustment.  She earned the first B- of her life her freshman year but with a lot of hard work and the support of her teachers her grades have steadily improved.  She estimates she studies about three hours every week night.  Still, she’s found time to play basketball, turn out for track and field, and act and do tech for several school plays.  She’s served on the lit mag staff, sold Tarrier Dogs at football games for Green Derby and helped organize the diversity club.

At Charles Wright, Tori discovered that she loves foreign languages.  She’s studying both French and Spanish.  She made her first trip to Europe last spring to spend Winterim in Italy.  She came home determined to go back, so she got a job as a bagger at QFC over the summer.  Those language classes came in handy when one of her customers couldn’t figure out how to use an Advantage Card.  Tori was able to explain how the card worked to her in Spanish.

Like many of her classmates, Tori was thinking about college from the day she set foot on CWA’s campus.  In addition to working with CWA’s college counselors she participated in a national program for Native American students called College Horizons.  By last summer she knew exactly what she was looking for in a school – good language programs, a sense of community, opportunities to study abroad, small classes and employment connections.  She wants to travel a lot, so she figured a double major in foreign relations and languages would allow her to work for the U.S. government, perhaps in an embassy.

By the end of last summer, Tori had a long list of colleges she was interested in applying to, but she was confident in her number one choice: Dartmouth.  Located in Hanover, New Hampshire, it’s the smallest of the Ivy League schools with 4,100 undergraduate students.  On their website, the college president describes Dartmouth as a paradox:  “Located in beautiful, rural New Hampshire, it is an intimate community that explodes with energy and benefits from extraordinary connections and collaborations with thinkers, artists, and institutions nationally and internationally.”

“Dartmouth was my first choice college for many reasons,” explains Tori. “Dartmouth has wonderful language programs and students can study abroad for up to three quarters. When I visited the campus, all of the students were very friendly and welcoming so I immediately felt comfortable. The campus is astounding and living on the east coast for four years will be a nice change of scenery. Dartmouth has a very strong and active Native American community that has a great support and resource system for students. In college it is my hope to get back in touch with my Nooksack and Port Gamble S’klallam heritage as well as learn about the culture of other tribes.”

Tori was so confident that Dartmouth was the right school for her that she applied for early decision.  That meant that she filled out just one college application this fall and committed that if she was accepted to Dartmouth, she’d go.  If she was not admitted, she’d be able to apply to other schools in December and January when most college students send their applications.  “I applied early decision because I knew that Dartmouth had everything that I was looking for in college and I would be extremely happy there,” she says.

In December, word arrived.  She’s in!  “To me, getting accepted to Dartmouth College is almost unreal,” she says.  “I am the first in my family to go to college and I am really excited to be showing everyone that it is possible. I’m also really excited to be meeting new people from all over the country and the world.”

From a pool of nearly 1,600 applicants, Dartmouth admitted 461 students through early decision this fall into the class of 2014.  “I’ve been reading applications for more than 20 years, and this year the depth and breadth of our early decision applicant pool were notable,” wrote Maria Laskaris, the dean of admissions and financial aid, in a press release.  “The 230 men and 231 women who have been admitted… demonstrated exceptional academic achievement and remarkable impact on their schools and communities.”

Now, while many of her classmates are polishing their applications and anxiously waiting for responses, Tori can simply enjoy her last semester at Charles Wright and begin planning her four years at Dartmouth.  “I have been working with horses since last September,” she says, “and I am super excited that at Dartmouth I will be able to take riding lessons and even be able to try out for the beginner level equestrian team.”