Art has been a part of freshman Stella Rask’s life since she was a young girl, and she has always been inspired by her uncle, since he is a designer. When she was younger, Rask’s love for art started with finger painting and drawing with chalk, but as she’s gotten older, her artwork has developed to sketching and painting.  

While her elementary school did not offer a good art program, Rask took it upon herself to learn art techniques and ideas like scale, texture, and color theory.

Rask is taking Art Foundations, taught by Ms. Cha Asokan, and it is her favorite class at La Salle. “Ms. Cha is such an amazing teacher and an amazing human being,” Rask said. “She’s so easy to talk to and is so supportive of our art even if we aren’t proud of it.”

This school year, Rask decided to not take a language course right away, and instead have two electives per semester. She will need to complete two consecutive years of a language, and plans to take French 1 as a sophomore next year. 

Taking two electives, Art Foundations and Drama 1, has led Rask to be able to make new friends and adjust to high school easier. “My schedule was nice because I had an elective every day of the week, and [I] always had something to look forward to in the day,” she said. 

Rask enjoys taking Drama this year because it allows her to participate in new and interesting activities that are involved with theater, while being able to be social and have fun with friends. Her favorite part of drama class was doing improv. “I loved doing it in front of my small class, and [I] was very comfortable performing in front of them,” Rask said. 

Rask hopes to be a part of the stage crew for the fall play in the 2020-2021 school year, but doesn’t see herself auditioning for a role. She wants to stay involved in the theater program as much as possible, and hopes to take Advanced Acting as an elective before she graduates. 

Along with her passion for art, Rask was a three sport athlete and played on both the soccer and swim team, as well as track and field before the season was canceled due to COVID-19. She hopes to run next spring season for the track team. 

While Rask isn’t planning to play soccer next season in order to focus on schoolwork, she will continue swimming. “The most memorable aspect [of swim season] was probably placing first in my heat in my first 100 [meter] backstroke,” Rask said. 

Since La Salle is now fully online until the end of the school year, Rask has been adapting to her changed lifestyle. “Online school was a struggle at the start but I’m starting to get used to submitting things digitally,” she said. 

Rask has found ways to manage online school and lessen stress. “At first I thought I could put it off until the hour it was due,” she said. “That’s not a good idea because it makes you more stressed and you don’t turn in your best work.”

To keep up with her schoolwork, Rask likes to have a schedule and get everything done in the mornings, allowing set breaks throughout. This schedule offers her time to relax and spend her afternoons and evenings doing fun and productive activities instead of schoolwork. 

Another struggle that Rask has been facing with online school has been not being able to see her friends, and she misses the interactive aspect that in-person classes offer. “[I miss] going to real classes where my attention is always on the teacher and not on social media,” she said. 

During quarantine, Rask has enjoyed spending time painting, reading, redecorating her room, and learning to skateboard. She has also been working on new art projects in different mediums and forms.  

Rask offers advice to the incoming freshmen class next year and how to handle their first day of school. “I would tell the freshman that they should really be as social as they can on link day and to be nice to everyone,” Rask said.