Junior Gabrielle Jones began her journey at La Salle after attending All Saints School along with only three other students. Jones explained that she appreciated the fresh start this granted her, focusing on putting her best foot forward to discover her current community.
“I kind of found friends through different clubs, and I met some friends through Speech & Debate,” Jones said. “It was like a network of ‘this person knows that person,’ and I just met a lot of great people through more great people.”
Jones has been participating in the school’s Speech & Debate team since her freshman year, and recently stepped into the position of co-captain alongside fellow member and senior Avari Brocker. A big aspect of this new leadership role is helping to coach her peers during practice.
This isn’t her first leadership position, as Jones has taken part in peer tutoring since her sophomore year, and is currently a coordinator for the program.
“I am working on my teaching skills. I feel like I have a lot to improve in how I can communicate better with people, just finding ways to speak in terms that are easiest for them to understand,” Jones said. “As a teacher I’m not working to make them understand me, I’m working to make me understand them and how to help them.”
A highlight from Jones’ sophomore year was Honors Algebra II, a course taught by math teacher Mr. Linus Oey.
“Mr. Oey is such a great teacher because he can really connect with the students,” she said. She considers him her favorite teacher at La Salle so far, along with all of the teachers from the Spanish department.
Jones has been learning Spanish for most of her life, as they taught it at her middle and elementary school, though she feels like it started to actually click once she started attending high school.
“A lot of my family speaks Spanish. That’s incentive for me to learn,” Jones said. “I want to be able to communicate with them.”
Jones went to Mexico frequently to visit her family, and has always been a big traveler, mainly due to a devotion to Scottish Highland Dancing that she has had for 12 years.
“I’ve been doing national competitions since 2017. I’ve been a representative of the Northwest region,” she said. “Each region holds their own regional competition, and the top three reps of that regional competition get to go to the United States National Championship, which is held in different regions every year.”
Through these dancer competitions, Jones said she has gotten the chance to travel to a plethora of states across the country, along with doing “two or three a year in Canada.”
Jones’ family has always been an important part of her life. Being an only child and with her dad traveling for work often, she’s very close with her mom. “Road trips to Seattle three times a year are some of my favorite things because I get to spend a bunch of time with my mom in the car, and we get to go up for boba, and we go shopping,” she said.
Jones’ favorite memories as a kid were trying new restaurants with her parents and spending time with them. “It’s one of my favorite things, just sharing a meal, family style,” she said.
Jones has enjoyed her time at La Salle as she had the ability to explore her interests, and looks forward to continuing to try new things in her work as the Officer of Philanthropy. She’s excited to see how her position and the activities she’s involved in change through the next year and how she can better develop her leadership role at La Salle.
