Laughter fills the upper school art room as students talk about school life and their duties after school while painting rocks and pumpkins. In front of each student lays rocks and paints for them to use. Air conditioning flows throughout the room, making it a comfortable environment. Artistic ideas like these and conversations occur during Crafts Club, which meets every Wednesday and Thursday during lunch. For Jackson Lara (12), these moments remind him of memories of starting this club with his friends back in middle school and the progress they’ve made since.

During middle school, Jackson frequently engaged with the Perler Beads Club, where they fashioned perler beads into little crafts. Once he and his friends entered high school, they brought the club to the upper school and renamed it the Crafts Club, a place where students can converse and enjoy themselves while working on crafts. After having meetings with multiple club members, Jackson reflects on what the club means to him and the fun community he hopes to nurture.

“We like to help foster a fun place to be,” Jackson said. “It’s always enjoyable to see that everyone’s having a good time and relaxing. It’s nice and cool in the art room. They just make something, be it rocks or perler beads or whatever their heart desires, and their little bag of trinkets that they can use to create whatever.”

Whether it be inside or outside of Crafts Club, Jackson cares about making every experience a fun and pleasant one. He works hard to help out whenever possible and supply everyone with everything they need. Beyond Crafts Club, Jackson finds joy in working to make a difference in the lives of others. 

“Working with kids in general, working at summer camp all the time is definitely a big part of me,” Jackson said. “I quite like to make an enjoyable time for others, but I remember my experience when I was a kid at the summer camp myself. Everyone there worked so hard to make things happen, and I wanted to do the same thing.”

Always willing to lend a helping hand, Jackson creates a healthy environment of kindness and compassion. During his daily classes, Jackson talks with everyone to understand how they feel and support them in whatever way possible. One such example of this empathy is that on the first day of every class, he aims to raise his hand to ease the tension in the classroom. Upper school history and government teacher Carol Green commends Jackson for his understanding personality.

“Jackson really sees people,” Green said. “He sees people, and he makes a point of getting to know and to support and to help. He is a great judge of character. He’s got a lot of compassion. But let’s talk about the fact that those social emotional skills are hard to learn. He’s got them. ”

Whether with his classmates or friends, Jackson listens to people and lets them express their ideas and thoughts, making his conversations with people comfortable and relaxed. Close friend Sebastian Dionne (12) admires Jackson’s ability to not only engage in conversation but also listen to anyone talk whenever they need to.

“He’s really good at pushing conversation to what the other person is passionate about,” Sebastian said. “His conversation skills are really good, and sometimes when talking to him, I can find myself talking about this thing I’m passionate about for five minutes straight. I’m like, ‘well, how did this happen?’”

Wherever he is, Jackson enjoys having thrilling moments with his friends and rest of his community. He makes hangouts entertaining but knows when to regain his composure. Close friend Maggie Yan (12) recalls a time when they hung out together with their friends.

“Jackson likes to always have fun and make jokes, but he also understands what he’s doing,” Maggie said. “He understands emotional nuance. He knows when to be funny and when to take something seriously.

Jackson relates to people often and supports them whenever possible, and he explains that he wants to be remembered as such a person. His compassion and ability to help others and supply them with anything they need allows him to constantly better himself and have new experiences.

“I want to be remembered as that guy who is always around throwing snacks, helping out, being the nice guy,” Jackson said. “I never want to make anyone mad, never try to make anyone mad. I don’t think I’ve made any teachers completely fresher off the rocker because I would do anything for them. I want to be remembered for that.”