Students who use their extracurricular activity and take it to the next level

High school is the time when many students begin working their first jobs. Outside of school, many students spend their time differently—whether it be by helping out their parents, doing house chores, or even working a part-time job. In a student’s high school career, they can take on a variety of jobs from retail, lifeguarding, and more. Some students even take up unique jobs like coaching or teaching.

Freshman tennis player Alexandra MacDougall has been coaching youth tennis for two years, teaching both group lessons and private lessons for about an hour each a few times a week. She helps them by teaching them different techniques to better their game.

“I just started teaching these two clients, and from there people saw me teaching in the community chords, and then others [joined] and that’s how the business started,” MacDougall said.

While staying occupied with school, she is able to teach tennis and life lessons to her students.

“I gain friendships with the kids that I teach,” Macdougall said.

From doing group lessons to private lessons for an hour, MacDougal works to improve the players’ forehand, backhand, and more.

“I think it’s really rewarding seeing clients get better and actually be able to hit [the ball],” Macdougal said.

Another enterprising student, Giuliana Haug has been teaching dance for two years. She teaches choreography to students ages five to 14. Once she graduated from the studio, “All That Dance,” she had a natural opening to start working there.

“It’s really cool to [watch] them grow,” Haug said.“It makes me feel really proud and I feel a big sense of joy when everything just comes together and they’re really happy.”

After two years of working with young dancers, Haug states how glad she is to see her methods are helping when she notices her dancers pick up the choreography easily.

“I feel a big sense of joy when everything comes together, and they’re really happy,” Haug said. Finally, coming to the end, and seeing it all worked out, [and] seeing all of the hard work you put in – it’s really like a sense of achievement, and it’s really awesome.”

Like MacDougall, senior Grace McSkimming plays tennis and has a passion to teach other people. Eventually that led to more people asking for her as a coach as well.

“I just wanted something to do when I was kind of bored, so then I just wanted to start something and then I found this and I’ve been doing it ever since,” McSkimming said.

McSkimming balances school and her own tennis matches all while making sure she has openings for her clients by planning her week ahead of time. Not only does McSkimming teach kids tennis, but she helps them with other important skills as they grow up..

“I feel like they look to me [and] I always try to give them advice and life lessons,” McSkimming said. “I really enjoy doing it, I like to see them improving and it seems like they have a fun time doing it too.”