Senior Spotlight: Daria Prewitt

Daria Prewitt has a lot of emotions when she reflects on her time at Sage Ridge. She’s a lifer, meaning that she started in 5th grade, which was the earliest point of entry for her class. She remembers playing a lot of Grounders on the playground in 5th grade with friends like Gilbert, Bella, and Alex. Daria sees herself, her classmates, and her community of seniors as having come so incredibly far together.

A standout memory from Daria’s middle school experience was the 8th-grade Outdoor Education trip to Yosemite. The mountains, fields of flowers, wildlife, and beauty of the environment were certainly stunning, but she especially enjoyed hanging out in the tents with friends and “doing mischievous 8th grader things (like talking ten minutes past bedtime).” Daria’s senior year Outdoor Education trip was equally memorable for similar reasons. The kayaking adventures were fun and Tamales Bay was “incredible.” Yet what sticks with her was the time spent watching people jump into the ocean and subsequently freeze, or waiting for a man to deliver oysters (he never arrived), or the deer that woke Gil up outside of his tent. 

Daria describes her younger self as shy. She tried a few things throughout her time at Sage Ridge, such as soccer and debate in 9th grade. The pandemic had a significant impact on so much of this class’s high school experience, and Daria missed out on a lot of the normal campus offerings in her 10th and 11th-grade years. So when Daria landed a role in Twelve Angry Jurors, her very first show, she stunned peers and teachers alike with her confidence on stage. Daria is currently performing as the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz, and she can pinpoint the way acting has changed her this year.  “I’m definitely more popular with the children,” she notes, and I can verify this truth as the parent of a Munchkin who is smitten by Daria’s stage presence. She also admits that she has become a much stronger public speaker, a skill that is translating into success in her classes. According to castmate and friend Devin Raleigh, “it’s amazing to see Daria work a stage.” Daria plans to continue pursuing theatre opportunities in college. For now, she’s gearing up for her senior internship with the Reno Little Theater. 

One theme that emerges as we talk is that she has a great sense of pride in what she has accomplished at Sage Ridge. She has thought a lot recently about her experience struggling through her paper on The Invisible Man in Mr. Sloyan’s 11th grade American Literature class because she can now see how it helped her with her senior thesis. For her thesis, Daria had set out to make an argument about how the film Silence of the Lambs depicts women in the sexist vein of most films in the horror genre, and as she researched and drafted, she realized that her argument was shifting. The process of drafting and revising her ideas facilitated a revelation in her argument, and she was “incredibly excited” when she finished the thesis. 

When asked about advice she would give to younger Sage Ridge students, Daria exhales and replies, “so many things.” According to Daria, “Grades aren’t the end of the world,” meaning that while she has had her share of academic ups and downs, she’s palpably proud of how far she has come in her Sage Ridge journey. I can speak for all of the community when I say that we are proud of her, too.