Seniors at Lamar: Allison Cully

With the start of a new school year and the last year of high school, Lamar senior Allison Cully is working hard to make her mark on the school. 

While she is eager to go to college and start a new chapter in life, Cully is making the most of the year. 

“It feels pretty exciting to be a senior this year,” Cully said. “I’m ready to finish high school and go to college, but I really want to have a senior experience.”

For Cully, part of this experience is getting even more involved with extracurricular activities within the school. 

“I’m prioritizing my academics, especially since IB takes a lot of time, but I’m also starting up some clubs and I’m playing lacrosse in the spring,” Cully said. 

Cully is not only involved; she is also the president of two clubs this year: Girls Who Code and Gardening Club. 

“I completely underestimated how much work it was going to be, the amount of lunches I would spend planning for the clubs and designing things. I wasn’t expecting it at all, but I really enjoy it because it's work I get to do with friends,” Cully said. “I also just really like gardening and coding.”

While Girls Who Code is not a new addition to the Lamar club scene, the Gardening Club is brand new thanks to Cully. 

“I decided to start the club after talking to a friend about our shared passion for plants and how we couldn’t really do it outside of the agricultural department at school. We felt like it would have been a missed opportunity so we thought it would be a good idea to build a garden that the whole school could have access to without it being a required class,” Cully said. 

As for Girls Who Code, the club is less about developing coding skills and more about being in a community of women with a shared passion for something that is predominantly male-dominated. 

“It’s about being with people like you and people who have something in common with you. There are only four girls in my computer science class so being able to be in the classroom and learn in an environment that is much more comfortable and accepting is really great,” Cully said. “Freshman me would have loved it and felt more comfortable being able to work with other women.”

Beyond extracurricular activities and academics, she is very excited for the year ahead. 

“I’m really looking forward to all the stereotypical high school events like prom and graduation but I’m also just excited to be able to look back at my work over the four years and say that I’ve accomplished so much,” Cully said. “For example, freshman me wanted to graduate with all As over the four years and I think I’ll be able to finish that.”