By Reese Clark
Staff Reporter
Heading into his fourth and final year on The Sentry, senior Elijah Dale is already setting his future up for success. With a strong interest in journalism since middle school, Dale has worked his way up to becoming one of the Head Editors for our school’s newspaper.
Dale hopes to continue his journalism career in the future, and he should have no problem doing so considering his background and experience in the field.
“I want to work in either the journalism world or the urban planning world, maybe combine the two,” Dale said.
In November 2022, Dale wrote a News article about the conflicts over the Missing Middle Housing in Arlington, which insists on building modestly-scaled houses, such as duplexes or triplexes.
Dale’s favorite section of The Sentry to write in is News, where he covers subjects like urban planning. He strongly dislikes writing in opinion, though he tends to form strong opinions and naturally debates in person.
Outside of school, Dale has many hobbies, including thrifting, climbing and hiking with his friends. In fact, when asked what he would want to do in the future, if money played no part, he gave an expected answer.
“I’d go around and hike all day and just live the van life or something,” Dale said.
Dale has always loved spending time outside, especially with his friends. He takes part in many outdoor activities and hopes to continue to do so in the future.
Dale also really enjoys listening to music. He rolls into class with his headphones on nearly every day. Someone could ask him who he is listening to and his response would likely be Kendrick Lamar or Jeff Buckely. When asked what his go-to song would be, Dale gave some immediate responses.
“Maybe ‘Sundress’ by ASAP Rocky or ‘Jesus etc’ by Wilco,” Dale said.
Dale has always enjoyed music, journalism and climbing. Not much has changed for him personality-wise, either.
“I feel like I could have predicted who I was gonna be,” Dale said.
With a creative and down to earth personality, Dale brings a lot to the table for The Sentry as Head Editor.
By Elijah Dale
Staff Reporter
The leaves are turning red. The air, crisp and cool. It’s fall, and junior Photographer Reese Clark is finally in her element. Clark claims her love for the season stems from her stylistic decisions.
“Dressing [for] fall is my favorite thing ever. I also look like a fall person,” Clark said.
And though she works at a pool, she says she doesn’t like the summer.
“I mean, I like that there’s no school. But when you’re not at the beach, there’s not much to do. I also don’t feel like I fit summer,” Clark said.
Clark is not just partial to fall. She also loves the winter snow—skiing in particular. She skis at Wisp Ski Resort in Maryland.
“We have a lake house there. It’s right next to the mountain. So if it’s a good [ski] season, and there’s a lot of snow, we make the three hour drive up there almost every week. I’ve also gone out West twice, but when I’m older I want to go on a lot of ski trips,” Clark said.
As the snow melts, and the weather warms up, however, Reese takes to the field to play lacrosse. She’s played for four years, and is now on our school’s varsity team.
When she’s not shredding powder or playing lacrosse, she’s probably studying. Clark is highly motivated both academically and athletically; even her social life demonstrates that. She’s chosen to surround herself with people who feel similarly.
“My friends are also very smart. Everyone takes mostly AP classes. And we’re all super athletic. Almost all of my friends are starting varsity athletes for either Lacrosse or soccer or track,” Clark said.
Clark is looking to the future, too. She hopes to study STEM after she graduates from our school.
“I want to go into Biomedical Technology at a big school. I’m gonna keep it East Coast. I wanna stay close to my family,” Clark said.
But for now, Clark is working hard at our school, and on top of her passion for STEM, she’s excited to have found a creative outlet on The Sentry’s photography team. In fact, she even got her start in photography at the advice of The Sentry’s advisor.
“Ms. Wiedemann told me to take the photography class [at our school] and then join The Sentry as a photographer. Then my cousin, who is a really good photographer, helped me get a camera and taught me how to use it,” Clark said.
Clark likes taking photos of landscapes. She snapped her favorite shot at the beach.
“When I’m on vacation, I love taking pictures of the landscape. I took this one picture of the Outer Banks with the sand dunes and the sunset. It had the moon in the corner, too. It was a really cool shot,” Clark said.
Clark will surely be a fantastic addition to the Sentry’s photography team this year. We’re more than excited to see the amazing work she’ll do for the paper in the coming year!
