Winch - It's About the People - Elisa

From time to time, I also hope to use a Winchendon Views entry to highlight different members of the Winchendon community as I get to know them. This week, I literally pestered Elisa for a few minutes, and she let me know so as we got to the end!

Name and hometown: Elisa Morales – Puerto Armuelles, Panama

Winchendon Connection: Elisa has known Winchendon since she was little as her uncle Mike and aunt Brenilda live on campus. Mike Burns teaches and is the head coach of our Men’s Varsity Basketball team. Elisa initially came for one year, graduating with the class of ’06, but wasn’t ready to leave and came back to graduate again with the class of ’07. She considers herself to be part of both classes.

After graduating from The Winch, Elisa moved on to Green Mountain College where she is studying biology in a pre-med program. Her goal is to become an optometrist. She hasn’t decided yet whether she would prefer to practice in the U.S. or Panama.

And she still hasn’t been able to leave Wichendon! This summer she has been working as part of the administrative team at the school, regularly filling in as the friendly voice on our end of the main phone number, working in the business office and helping keep the various groups of campers coming and going smoothly.

When I asked her to reflect on her times as a student at Winchendon, Elisa credits Mrs. Blair with helping her become a much better writer. And she really lit up when recalling her memories of ice skating and attending basketball and hockey games as favorite activities. When pressed for other most memorable moments, Elisa cited the last math test of the year when she finally got the highest score over a group of guys who had dominated the test results for the year. I thought that academics weren’t supposed to be that competitive…!

Elisa and I also discussed her favorite book (La Vida Que Olvida) and her favorite music (U2 – Beautiful Day), the latter interest which we share. I will have to look for an English version of La Vida Que Olvida. When it came to current events, Elisa’s mind is on the elections at home in Panama.

Elisa showed either her true dedication (I have to try to believe this) or more likely her boredom with our chat when she closed our discussion by stating, “Mr. Kerney, you are interrupting my work.”!

Thanks Elisa for your work this summer, some good laughs and sharing some thoughts about you and Winchendon. Good luck this fall back at college.