{"id":9886,"date":"2018-10-03T18:45:33","date_gmt":"2018-10-03T18:45:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=9886"},"modified":"2018-10-03T18:45:33","modified_gmt":"2018-10-03T18:45:33","slug":"dakota-sanders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2018\/10\/03\/dakota-sanders\/","title":{"rendered":"Dakota Sanders"},"content":{"rendered":"

GATE student finds her niche <\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

By Emilee Mae Struss<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
Dakota Sanders,
Photo courtesy of Dakota Sanders<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Silver Creek High School student Dakota Sanders hopes to graduate this year, though she is technically a junior. Sanders has been in the Gifted And Talented Education (GATE) program since she was in second grade.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing in the GATE program since I was little just showed me that I learned different from other kids, and faster,\u201d Sanders said.<\/p>\n

When Sanders became of appropriate age, she started taking a full course load of Advanced Placement classes; however, she still felt that something was off about her education.<\/p>\n

Sanders said she feels nothing is wrong with traditional education but she just knew she did not fit there. She needed an alternative, but struggled to discover where her unique learning capabilities could fit best.<\/p>\n

Sanders started attending SCHS mid-December last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cSilver Creek is perfect for me because there are only 50 students and the advisors are really involved,\u201d Sanders said. \u201cI was also able to catch up on all my credits and could test out of some classes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year, Sanders applied for and received a scholarship to attend the Writers\u2019 Conference in Sun Valley. She attended many powerful talks and made connections with very accomplished writers, including author Ridley Pearson, whom she now works for as a personal assistant.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like working with Pearson,\u201d Sanders said. \u201cHe needs a teen to help with slang and wording to make his young-adult novels legit, so I help with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sanders enjoys learning about multimedia and trying her hand at various types of art when she isn\u2019t working for Pearson. She hopes to attend a university in Washington post-graduation for graphic design and, potentially, psychology. For several years she has been making signs and logos using Adobe Draw and playing around with her iPad Pro, learning photography and editing photos.<\/p>\n

Last year, Sanders also applied for and received a grant from the Blaine County Education Foundation to build a longboard, after breaking her own.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wrote a paper about the science of longboarding\u2014the history and culture and even skating fashion,\u201d Sanders said. \u201cWith the grant, I bought the bamboo and maple wood, and with the help of my dad, we made a longboard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sanders then painted the bottom with a mystical character with humanistic features\u2014a character that Sanders explains has appeared in some of her previous work.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t know what I was going to paint at first,\u201d Sanders said, \u201cbut then I just sent it.\u201d<\/p>\n

She has developed many great friendships through SCHS and is inspired by the staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the most inspirational people I know is Thor Top,\u201d Sanders said. \u201cHe is always there when anybody needs him. He is like the dad of our school and brings such a light to the entire school.\u201d<\/p>\n

Top is an advisor and teacher at SCHS. Sanders expresses gratitude for many individuals in helping her find her unique pathway to education and self-development.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am proud of myself for continuing to try in school,\u201d Sanders said. \u201cA lot of GATE students drop out of school and I just didn\u2019t want to be a statistic, so I chose to stay.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GATE student finds her niche By Emilee Mae Struss Silver Creek High School student Dakota Sanders hopes to graduate this year, though she is technically a junior. Sanders has been in the Gifted And Talented Education (GATE) program since she was in second grade. \u201cBeing in the GATE program since I was little just showed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,41],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9886","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sponsored","7":"category-student-spotlight"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9886\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}