Jaguars jump through 14th season
Wednesday, February 24th, 2010
All winter CWA’s Jumping Jaguars have wowed the crowds at half-time during Upper School varsity basketball games with jump roping skill and their stage presence. This week they will make their last on-campus performance of the season on Friday during a Lower School Town Meeting. The Jaguars will be helping kick off the CWA Winter Olympics for the Lower School. The squad has 18 rope jumping members in this, their 14th season at CWA. Read the rest of this entry »
Natalie Powell loves soccer. She has played at Charles Wright since she arrived on campus in sixth grade and competed outside of school on the elite Washington Premier 91 club team since she was 12 years old. She has long dreamed of playing the most competitive soccer of her life when she reached college. Her parents and coaches realized years ago that she is a gifted athlete with the potential to make that dream a reality. 
Willamette University is a strong liberal arts school that many Charles Wright students consider. Located in Salem, Oregon, it’s just a three hours drive from home. Willamette has an undergraduate study body of 1,800 and most classes have no more than 30 students. At the same time, the school offers a broad array of academic, athletic and social opportunities. All of this appealed to Tana Watanabe, a CWA student who applied to Willamette a few months ago and was accepted early into the class of 2014. 
Just over a month ago a 7.0 earthquake rocked Haiti devastating a country already overwhelmed by poverty and a long history of social and political challenges. Within days, CWA students, like so many people around the world, were pitching in to help. In all three divisions, students have come up with creative ways to raise money, awareness and needed supplies. 
Megan Kelley is one of 13 lifers in this year’s senior class. She came to Charles Wright as a kindergartner and has thrown herself into the life of the school ever since. Next year she’ll trade in her green and white gear for blue and buff. She’s picked a college with a mascot almost as unusual as a Tarrier. She’s going to be a Hamilton College Continental. 
Today is national signing day for college-bound student athletes and in a short ceremony in the Upper School commons, three CWA seniors this morning formally declared their intent to compete in collegiate athletics at specific schools. Natalie Powell will play Division I women’s soccer for Saint Mary’s College of California. Max LaBerge will run cross country, indoor track and outdoor track for Williams College. Megan Kelley will play women’s tennis for Hamilton College. Proud parents, siblings, coaches, teammates, classmates and school administrators gathered for the signing event. 
“It’s one of the top universities in the world, a place where you can come into contact with genius, where people develop ideas and make decisions that change the world,” says Austin Jung. In just a few short months he’ll be one of those people. The CWA senior has been accepted to Yale. He applied for restricted early action, meaning he could apply early to only one college but wasn’t obligated to accept the offer if one came. Austin, who always knew he wanted to travel and live in places far beyond the Northwest, is about 99% sure he’ll go to Yale now that he’s in.