West Shore alumni have gone to colleges and universities around the country. Through lectures and hours of homework, they sometimes come to reflect on their years at middle and high school. Alumna Julia Petrillo, who attended West Shore in seventh and eighth grade, from 2010 to 2012, said her experience at West Shore helped her academically.

“I really excelled in learning at West Shore,” Petrillo said.  “I attended for the purpose of boosting my education for high school and college level learning.”

Petrillo also said her most favorable experience at West Shore was with newly retired French teacher Jennifer Walker.

“My favorite experience was Congrès with Madame Walker,” she said.  “It was a French competition where we would compete against schools from around the state.”

Haleigh Boyer, who graduated in 2016, said that her favorite experience was during Wildcat Challenge.

“I was a senior and it was Wildcat Challenge,” Boyer said.  “[History teacher Bob] Sarver was my homeroom teacher and we had a streak of losing, which is a streak we kept our junior year. Then we won one match of tug of war, and we decided as a class we were going to actually try. We actually won out of all the senior classes and we freaked out.”

Boyer also said many of her teachers deserve praise.

“There were so many great teachers who helped me through my years here,” she said. “Like [graphic design teacher Jim] Finch, [Carolyn] Horst, [Kirk] Murphy, [Jessica] Thomas, and especially Mr. Sarver.  When I was in ninth grade, my homeroom teacher retired and we were all worried we were going to be split up into different homerooms, but Mr. Sarver adopted us.”

Petrillo said attending West Shore helped her academically.

“West Shore prepared me very well for my future endeavors and education,” she said.  “It may have been challenging, but it helped in the end.”

By Ben Nielsen