About Me

Hello! My name is Claire Newcom, and I am currently a Junior at Mass Academy. Before coming to Mass Academy, I attended King Philip Regional High School, and I live in Norfolk M.A., with my parents, my two younger sisters, and our dog, Amber.

Family

I have two sisters and they are 14 and 10 respectively. We also have a dog, who is 13 years old and very deaf. Something my family enjoys doing is traveling to our lake house in New Hampshire, where, in the summer, we often swim, spend time on our boat, and relax. In the fall, one of our favorite things to do at our lake house is attend the fair that is held in the town. We usually walk around the fairgrounds, eat food, and look at the different exhibits, and sometimes we go on the rides.

My dad, my sister Lauren, and I also enjoy watching movies together, and we have slowly been watching all the Marvel movies and shows, and the Stranger Things Series. My favorite Marvel movie/show so far has been Moon Knight because it was very thought provoking, and the storyline was very interesting. As a whole family, we also enjoy playing tabletop games such as Catan or Pit, which are fun, but can also create rivalries. Catan is a game where you attempt to settle an island, and Pit is a game best played in a large group, where you trade cards with each other trying to get a full set of 9 of the same cards.

Hobbies

Outside of school I do dance, which I love. I have been dancing since I was 3, and I do ballet, jazz, contemporary, and lyrical dance, though tap is my favorite. I am also on my dance academy’s performance and competition teams, where we perform for various events. The picture to the right shows my teammates and I when we were performing one of our dances last year. Dance competitions usually occur in the spring for me, but other things, like dance classes, run throughout the school year. Here is a link to my dance academy's website if you want to check it out! –Inspire Dance Academy During the summer we have some summer camps and classes, some of which include choreography intensives, weekly classes, or little kid camps. I am very excited for this dance year, and I cannot wait until competition season starts.

Another thing I enjoy doing outside of school is crocheting, which is something I have been doing for 2 years. In the past I have crocheted a Harry Potter doll, which was my first ever project, and a mini dragon doll. I have also crocheted a pair of socks and a couple of hats, as well as a couple other smaller things. This youtuber, Brutanicality, made the tutorial I followed to make my socks, as well as a couple of other projects. I want to try and create some of my own patterns at some point, because I feel like that would be an interesting experience, and it would provide me with a bit of a challenge. For me, crocheting is a calming activity, and I love creating things, which is why it has become a hobby of mine.

Community Service

In the fall of my junior year, I was able to volunteer at the Abbey Kelley Foster Charter School, which is a school in Worcester. I was able to do this through MAMS, as every year they dedicate at least one day for community service and they offer us some options for what we can do on that day. I chose to participate in the activity offered by MAMS, where we helped teach the kids at the school about different subjects related to STEM. One of the activities I helped out with was teaching kids about different bird beaks, and how the beaks of birds adapt over time to improve their food foraging abilities in their surroundings. We first did a short presentation on bird beak adaptations, and then we were able to do a hands-on activity where they used different tools to pick up pretend food so they could see why some beak types might work better for different foods. On another day, I helped out with a spool racer activity. The purpose of this activity was to teach the kids more about the engineering design process, and we again started off with a short presentation, and then moved to the activity. I had a lot of fun doing it, and it was nice to be able to go in and present to kids who might not have had a class like that before.

Additionally I have volunteered for two events with my local Lions Club. The first event was an Easter breakfast where I helped to set up and take down the decorations and the tables. I also helped sign in the families who were participating. I liked the experience, and it was a good feeling when I helped make some little kids and parents smile. The second event was a polar plunge event that my town hosted. I helped direct cars to the parking lot for the plunge, and then I was able to watch everyone actually do the plunge. It was interesting and I may want to actually do the plunge in the future.

In the future, I would like to do more volunteering for the Lions Club. I have been looking at some other options for community service as well, and would like to contact the group that is running the bottle and can donation project in my town to see if I can get volunteer there. The group sorts the bottles and cans by themselves with volunteer assistance, and they are in connection to the band from my sending school, so I would be helping to support the arts. Besides that I may also try and volunteer at a local food pantry, because I feel like that would be a fulfilling experience for me.