Kate Newberry is a senior here at BHS, and you might have seen her roam the halls in between class periods, but what you may not know is what goes on outside of school. Kate has immersed herself in a wide range of after-school activities where she plays rugby for Pike High School, is a member of the Fishing Club, as well as an avid jewelry maker.

Kate explains why she plays rugby as she goes on to say, “Well, I was bored because I had just quit cross country because of too many injuries, and I just got up and decided to I wanted to play rugby, and just like that, I was signed up and ready to play.” Kate doesn’t have the stereotypical rugby player build, and going from a non-contact sport in cross country to a full-contact sport, one might think the transition seems daunting. This is not true for kate, as she said that the real tough transition involved her parents. “My parents thought I wasn’t serious [about playing rugby] and wasn’t going to go all the way through it. But once they did realize I wasn’t going to stop, they were worried about my safety.” Nevertheless, Kate has full confidence in her abilities and is ready to kick off the new season.
Kate is also splitting her time after school with fishing club. Kate expressed her love for fishing when she said, “Well, the freedom of it is very nice. You could spend hours in a boat sitting there very peacefully and not take in a lot of fish, or you can go there for a short time and catch a large amount.” She also details her excitement for the upcoming fishing season: “I can’t wait for the different competitions because I have never done anything like it so it should be very fun and exciting.”

As she heads home each day, a hobby that drives her is her fascination in jewelry making. She has a wide range of materials and tools at her disposal in order to make numerous pieces of beautiful jewelry. When asked what she does with the ones she makes she explained, “I often use my jewelry as gifts for special days such as birthdays and holidays. I often give them to my relatives, and I try to make them unique to the person I’m giving it to.” But all hobbies had to originate somewhere, and she attributes this one to her love of Pinterest as well as her

Grandma, saying, “Well, my grandma would help me make jewelry, and I would see different Pinterest boards of different jewelry, and I was convinced that I could recreate those jewelry as well as make my own.”

Kate’s life outside of school is filled with unique and exciting activities where it can be hard to stay on top of everything. Yet despite all of this she still shows her appreciation to her family as she expresses the sentiment, “My family is very huge to me. They bring me a ton of happiness. I spend a lot of time with them, and I love them a lot.”