Welcome to View from the Top! This is a new column where we are spotlighting different seniors to hear about their “view from the top.” (If you are a senior interested in being featured, contact any of our club’s members or our faculty advisor Mrs. Ray, or email [email protected].)
In this issue, we’re featuring CCHS senior Robyn Herbert!
Like many other students at CCHS, senior Robyn Herbert says that although she previously “couldn’t wait to be a senior and get out of high school,” leaving has taken on “a whole different meaning” now that she is one. “I don’t think anything can prepare you for all the emotions that come up at the end of senior year,” she reflects, “but at the same time, I feel so lucky to have experienced all that I have during high school.”
One of the most significant parts of Herbert’s CCHS experience was her involvement in CC Theatre, to which she “will be forever grateful… because of the wonderful people that I met and the kind, supportive nature of the community.” Throughout her time at CCHS, theatre was “the one activity that [she] did all four years.” She adds that having had a chance to experience the program as both an actor and a techie, something that “not a lot of people get the chance to do,” she “couldn’t feel more lucky” to have been part of the community and to have been able to “see all different sides of CC Theatre.”
From an academic aspect, Herbert also mentions the AP Capstone course, where she says “I feel like I learned so much about research and how to write.” She mentions that her teacher, Dr. Cicchetti, served as “not only a teacher [but also] a mentor and a friend,” concluding that the class “helped [her] grow into [herself] as a learner more than any other.”
Amid the busyness and stress of a day at CCHS, complete with theatre rehearsals after school, Herbert’s favorite hangout is Starbucks, where she says she has “spent the majority of [her] lunch blocks senior year.” But to Herbert, “going out for lunch wasn’t really about getting good food”—she even remarks that “honestly, I think the cafeteria food isn’t half bad”—but rather about “being able to get a break in the day and spending quality time with my closest friends.”
It’s possible that Herbert is not a significant part of the heated debate between Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts, because despite her devotion to Starbucks as a lunch hangout, Herbert says she could not live without the Strawberry Dragonfruit refresher from Dunkin’. She says, “As a person who does not like coffee but needs caffeine, I highly recommend.”
Regarding guidance for underclassmen, Herbert says that although “it may seem simple,” she advises that students “be [themselves] and forget what others might think.” She explains, “I know that I personally wanted to fit in and be ‘cool’ freshman year, but after COVID… I realized it was better for me to be myself because it made me so much happier and allowed me to make some really genuine close friends who I know I will be friends with for a very long time.”
Herbert also shouts out her mom, who she says “has and always will be my biggest supporter.” She expresses, “I can’t put into words how grateful I am to have such a powerhouse of a woman by my side.”
After graduating, Herbert will be attending the Isenberg School of Business at UMass Amherst. Herbert says, “Before that, I’m planning on saving as much as I can working over the summer so that I can really enjoy my first semester at college.” As of now, Herbert has “no idea” where she’ll be in ten years, but she continues, “I guess that’s kind of the beauty of it, right?… I want to have a successful career… but I am so excited to see where I do end up because right now, the possibilities are endless.”
We share Herbert’s excitement to see where her future takes her, and we congratulate her on her accomplishments in the past four years!