Lauren Whitley (12th) is a senior at CSD and has been going to CSD since kindergarten. “I am a lifer, It's been a wild ride.”

A huge part of Whitley’s life is dedicated to her family. She lives with her mom, dad, and her brother, Ben (9th) in the Lake Norman area. She has a dog named Baxter, a Golden Retriever. “I love Baxter dearly, he does not love me as much as I love him. But I'm okay with it!” 

Whitley openly admits (very proudly) that basketball is a huge part of her personality “I’m kinda an open book.” Whitley loves basketball, she started playing in third grade. She played all throughout middle school. She has also played for the varsity team since her freshman year. “We did pretty well last year, so I was so happy to be a part of that team.” Her team won the conference championship. “It's just been a place that I've formed so many great friendships with girls that I wouldn't have been able to know if we didn't play basketball together!” Lauren said that she has so many great memories and has learnt so many great lessons because of basketball. “Love it, it's my favorite. We’re a very tight knit group, we’ve been together for a while. It's not cliquey at all, every single one of us, we’re just very close and we love each other equally!” 

As we dig deeper into seeking out what kind of a person Whitley is, we soon find out that CSD shaped her into the person she is today. Whitley’s mom is a teacher at CSD, she teaches second grade. Lauren grew up around teachers a whole lot. Speaking to adults, her confidence in social situations and leadership situations soared. “It's just so much higher than it would be if I didn't go to CSD.” She was raised around teachers and she feels like being in a smaller knit community, everyone is very close. The teachers made her feel very comfortable with who she was with and who she was talking to. “It's made me very confident in my relationships and how I present myself to other people. I think that the ethics that were taught in the classroom at a very young age were always just like, this is going to sound so simple, but just be kind and fair and show respect to others and I think that as much as I want to say that happens at other schools I don't think that it does to the degree that it does at CSD.” She observes that there's a lot of mutual respect between the teachers and the students. Lauren honestly doesn't think that happens at the same level at other schools. “I think that there's a lot of disrespect between teachers and students. For me, I've felt like ‘we’re going to give you our respect and our trust, but in return we ask for you to trust and respect us.’” She deems that it gives her and others at CSD a lot of freedom. That freedom gives her and other students the power to make their own decisions for themselves and to help others. Lauren feels like CSD makes her feel very independent. “I feel like they want you to succeed, not just because it makes them look good. That's not just the vibe I've gotten, that's just what I know. I love it, everyone cares so much, it's crazy!” 

By: Palak Jawale