Meet the alumni of awakening seed school

Indra Ekmanis

Age: 26 | Location: Seattle, WA

I’m pursuing my PhD in International Studies at the University of Washington. My dissertation looks at identity formation and integration in Latvia through the lens of folk dancing. Dancing has always been my favorite thing to do, whether in a folk dance group, in a class or in the multipurpose room of the Seed. I have no doubt the Seed embedded in me the human need for expression and compassion, both of which are critical elements of what I work on now, and something I’ve spent cultivating the past (nearly!) 20 years with some of my closest friends from my earliest years in Becky’s and Mary’s classes.

Isabel Strouse

Age: 18 | Location: Los Angeles, CA
I attended the Seed for PreK and Kindergarten. In 2015 I graduated from Xavier College Prep in central Phoenix, and am currently attending the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). What matters to me most is relationships, those with friends and family, and maintaining those relationships. I am also a dancer, photographer and artist, and am very interested in science. I am majoring in biology at UCLA to fulfill a pre-med requirement. I grew up with my mom, dad and little sister in Tempe. My family, especially my father, was always very involved with the Seed. He would come play the guitar for the students; he loved participating in the Seed’s warm community. Upon my father’s death, years after we became Seed graduates, the community still came together and supported us boundlessly, and planted a tree in his memory. I feel that the Seed influenced who I am today by instilling in me certain values and a well rounded character that I carried with me as I grew up and still have today. The creativity that the staff encourages and the inclusive classroom setting provide an atmosphere of intellectual curiosity and growth. At the Seed, students learn that they can do anything they want to do from a young age, and I feel that’s why I have aimed so high for myself. I am touched to be involved with such a welcoming community. I truly feel I would not have the ambition, curiosity or excitement for learning and achievement that I have if I had not attended the Seed.