In her fourth and final year of high school, senior Rowan Klein calls her journey to La Salle “pretty random.”
During the height of the pandemic, Klein and her family realized that they wanted something different from the local public school. And so, for the last four years, Klein has taken up new and different classes and extracurriculars at La Salle.
Klein has taken an art class every year since she started at La Salle, with the exception of her junior year. For her AP Studio Art portfolio this year, Klein had to create several pieces exploring one specific theme of her choosing.
“I’ve never been more committed to it as I have been this year,” she said, calling the course one of the hardest she has taken at La Salle.
Observing sexism in the form of the gender pay gap, language, and from her own experience, Klein hopes to share the experiences of women everywhere with most of her works being abstract and surreal. In one of her pieces, she depicts a person, spitting out words of hate that are often targeted at women.
Klein said that once she has a drive for something, it makes getting better a lot easier, like she did on the tennis court.
Despite never playing before, Klein joined the JV tennis team. Starting at the bottom of JV in her first year was “pretty rough” she said, not winning any of her first matches.
Having her first year of high school be online, tennis allowed her not only the change of pace she had expected from La Salle but gave her the opportunity to branch out. Today, she is on the varsity team and grateful to her coach, Mr. David Lane, her teammates, and doubles partners, junior Ava Donnelly and senior Sofia Gonzalez.
Though the season is over and her time on La Salle’s girls varsity tennis team is coming to an end, she is looking forward to a final practice as part of the team’s tradition. On the last day of school, before sunrise at around 5 a.m., members of the tennis team will converge on the courts one last time.
Looking to the future, Klein has decided where she will be in the fall, and is looking forward to attending the University of Montana.
