By Crimson Stewart-Fatzinger, Class of 2028
This article is a part of a series of student stories of growth curated for the 2025 One Event. If you enjoy this story, please donate and tell us which student’s story inspired you to give.
Personal growth is often thought of as a dramatic transformation, but growth comes in different measures, whether that be in large bursts or small steps. The lowest point for me in terms of growth was when I was in online school during the pandemic. I had barely any motivation to work, and I kept pushing my work back, which became a bad habit. After moving schools for 7th and 8th grade, I finally was able to get into One Stone where I began my learning journey.
Growth is gradual. For example, when I first came to One Stone, I was nervous and closed off. I had trouble being vulnerable, but I immediately found my friends, which helped a lot. At the beginning of the school year, I had a lot to work on in terms of becoming vulnerable and collaborating with others. At my old school, my collaboration skills were used a lot. Most of our projects were group projects, which I struggled with because I usually work better solo. I had and still do have a hard time taking risks because it's easier playing it safe, but during my time here at One Stone, I have been thinking outside the box and taking more risks. I have gradually strengthened my confidence throughout the BLOB - One Stone’s Bold Learning Objectives that include knowledge, mindset, creativity, and skills. In areas where I don't feel as confident, I’m working with coaches to improve my writing, critical reading, and research. I have grown in many different ways from the beginning of the school year, but I feel the most important competency that I have been developing is risk-taking.
I was on a team with another student that wrote and produced a video for the 2025 One Event with the help of a professional videographer, Eric Straubhar. When my teammate and I were working on our video and writing the script, I took a lot of risks. The biggest risk I took in that process was revising a specific part in the script. We were working towards finalizing the script when a certain line wasn’t working for me. I spoke up and we spent more time redoing that line to make it more impactful and memorable. In the end, it turned out very well. But this is the sort of thing that the “old me” woud have just turned in and considered it done.
Another example of growth I've experienced since coming to One Stone was during Peeps on the Street, a time where design lab groups receive feedback on their projects from the community. My group was given a lot of feedback after we presented to each group of people. The feedback was very valuable, but some of it was hard to take since it felt like it was targeting our project. But the more feedback we were given, the easier it became to understand the feedback on a deeper level. It made me realize they gave us very useful feedback. Since I have been at One Stone, I have improved in a lot of BLOB objectives and competencies. I am very grateful for all of the opportunities I have had such as our trip to Paradise Point and the chance to be on the One Event video production team. I still have a ways to go, but, so far, but I’m proud of the the progress I've made so far!
