DID YOU KNOW?
The oldest CWA alumnus is just barely 60 years old?
Seven alums have been outdoor leaders for Charles Wright.
Charlie Frank '65 played Scott Carpenter in the movie "The Right Stuff."
Ten alumni are currently on the CWA Board of Trustees.
Alumna Dena Paris '89 started a girls soccer program in Morocco.
Former Math Department chair Bernie Tolan has a pony tail.
Annual Fund
Secure Online Giving
'07 graduation speech
by Creighton King (pdf)
Please visit our
new alumni site at
Get Wright Online
My husband is not sold on Charles Wright. “Nothing against C-Dub,” he says, “I just don’t know if I think private school is the best place to send our kids.” Mind you, we still have a solid 3 years until our oldest even hits school-age, so our conversations are a bit premature. None the less, they continue on a regular basis and each time, he asks me to explain to him what make Charles Wright so great. Though my answer is constantly evolving, it generally sounds like an out of breath and slightly frantic version of this…
It’s not private schooling that I’m lobbying for, it’s Charles Wright. Charles Wright taught me how to think and how to write. It provided me as many opportunities to fail as it did to succeed. (He is always perplexed by this one.) The brilliant thing about CWA is that you can participate in everything regardless of your ability to excel at it. You can play basketball in high school even if you’ve never shot a free throw and don’t know what a jump shot is. You can try your hand at theater even if the only line you’ve ever memorized is your standing breakfast order at McDonald’s and the only audience you’ve performed for is your slightly mildew-y shower curtain. At Charles Wright, it’s okay to try.
It is no wonder that this exposure to a wide range of experiences leads to a broad base of friendships among CWA students. In recent preparation for my 10-year high school reunion, I printed a list with the names of each member of my graduating class. I was not surprised that I recognized every name and could picture the 18-year old face of each of them. My guess is that this is not unusual for a CW graduate. And, not only because our graduating classes tend to hover around 60 students, but because at Charles Wright, it is impossible to be invisible, impossible to go unnoticed. As I sorted through rsvp’s for my ten-year class reunion, John continually asked, “Were you friends with her? Was he a buddy? Did you two get along?” I found myself explaining again…
When there are only 63 kids in your grade and often less than 15 in any given course section, everyone is sort of friends with everyone. I say “sort of” because of course you have better friends and best friends, but to not be friends at all with a member of your own class is a relative rarity.
Now, a decade removed from my days as a student at CWA, my closest friends and my favorite teachers are still the ones I met here. It’s difficult to describe the way this community becomes your family; the way people and memories stay with you long after you leave the campus. But, I don’t have to tell you that. I’m sure John and I will continue our habitual banter about Charles Wright. The way I see it, he has three years before he needs to say, “Molly, I just can’t think of a better place than Charles Wright to send our kids to school.” Somehow, I don’t think it will take that long.
I’m sure many of you are scoping out this alumni link hoping to catch a glimpse of familiar faces and memories from your own days spent here. Please follow the link provided to visit GetWrightOnline. There, you will find current alumni news, articles, events, and photos, as well as opportunities to read and post class notes, create your own photo album, and do buckets of other super fabulous alumni stuff.
