Wynter Chaverst’s (12) eyes light up as she laughs with a friend, head back, body shaking. She is comfortably leaning on her right leg, her posture exuding confidence. Before she speaks, she pauses to brush back her back her braids, which are a lively purple color that sharply contrasts with the forest of green and yellow around her.

“She is just so affable and gregarious,” said Allison Cartee (12), who is a close friend of Wynter’s. “I’ll text her or slide into her DMs like, ‘Hey, do you want to hang out?’ and she normally responds within a few minutes.”

Wynter and Allison frequently go to the mall together, where they often visit make up stores. On their last shopping trip together, the two were discussing shades of lipstick in one such store when Wynter, who has a passion for cosmetics, insisted Allison try a shade on.

“I was like, ‘No, no, no,’ but it was still really fun,” Allison said. “She’s super useful when you need like anything makeup, anything fashion. She’s literally my closet designer.”

The vibrance of Wynter’s appearance and personality is one of her most noticeable qualities, but those close to her also recognize a warm, thoughtful character beneath her charismatic exterior. When sophomore Michelle Ning first met Wynter four years ago, she was drawn to her energy and bold, individual sense of style.

“She was wearing really colorful braids, so she really stood out,” Michelle said. “It was really something else. She was also always really loud and basically friends with everyone, so I just knew she had to be my friend.”

Wynter’s friends have noticed her willingness to assist others with their hardships. When Rhys Edwards (10) was having difficulties with his classes, she gave him helpful advice such as “get involved with the stuff you’re passionate about.”

This advice helped Rhys solve his academic problems.

“I sorted it out, and the next year I was doing great,” Rhys said.

Michelle has felt the presence of Wynter’s sympathetic nature.

“She’s always there for me,” Michelle said. “She’s just really easy to talk to, she comforts you, she stays with you until you’re okay and then she’ll follow up with you.”

Wynter moved to California from Ohio, where her family lives, on July 31, 2008 when Wynter was 7 years old, and hasn’t returned since then. She misses being surrounded by her family, remembering the Christmas celebrations she used to have at her grandmother’s house in Cleveland with the rest of her extended family and how they always embraced each other at the last minute.

“There were feelings that I got there that I haven’t had anywhere else,” Wynter said, “There was a lot of love there.”

As a rising sixth grader, Wynter applied to Harker and another private school. When she was accepted to both, her mother allowed her to decide which to go to. After making a list of pros and cons for each school, Wynter ultimately decided to attend Harker.

“It was the biggest decision I had made up to that point,” Wynter said. “The path has been rough, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t regret my last six years here at all because I know that being at a school like Harker is going to get you places.”

After going to Harker for a few years, Wynter found another reason to stay at Harker in her friends.

“My sophomore year, things were getting pretty tough here at school, and just in general I was really, really tired, and I was at the point that I didn’t want to be at Harker anymore but I had friends that said to me, ‘We want you here. We don’t want you to leave,’ and they did everything that they could to try to get me to change my mind,” Wynter said. “They made me realize that even in the hardest times there are people who will still be there for you and they’ll show you how much you’re really worth.”

Compassion is important to Wynter, who loves to help others whenever she gets the chance.

“People sometimes don’t realize how much they have. They’re so focused on the material that they don’t realize there’s more worth and wealth in just having people with you who love you no matter what,” Wynter said. “To me, being loved is so much more important. Knowing that I have my family, and my close friends, who have helped me get through the hard times, has always helped me keep going, because I knew that I could always have them to fall back on, no matter what happened.”

Wynter applies her appreciation of the support of others outside of school, engaging in community service by volunteering at the Valley Medical Center. She decided to work at the hospital a few years ago after one of her uncles passed away following a major slip during a neural operation.

“I wanted to make sure that people wouldn’t have to feel the loss we felt when lost him,” Wynter said.

Wynter applies her love of caring for others at school, as well, comforting her classmates at difficult moments in their lives.

“One of my other friends was going through a really rough time, and Wynter put her arm around her,” Allison said. “She was acting like this girl’s mom, and I just thought that was so incredibly caring of her.”

Sensitivity to others is a critical human quality, according to Wynter.

“People have a tendency of looking at others and saying, ‘You are a terrible person, I can just tell because of the way you look’, but you don’t know anything about that person so who are you to judge them?” Wynter said. “Maybe you need to understand where you’re coming from. Just try to put yourself in their shoes even when it’s hard.”