Haileigh Smith is a practical, flexible and resilient young woman. These are all great qualities to possess during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The Huntington High School sophomore is continuing to thrive despite the previously unimaginable disruptions to daily life and classroom education.
An excellent student academically, Ms. Smith is also a wonderful athlete, participating in the Blue Devil volleyball, fencing and softball programs. She is also a member of the high school’s Key Club chapter, volunteering to make the community a better place.
Huntington High School sophomore Haileigh Smith.
Hybrid learning is a very challenging proposition for many students, but Ms. Smith has done well with the mix of in-person classroom education and distance learning.
“I actually enjoy the balance of school and home learning,” the teenager said. “While in school I get the direct instruction that I need from teachers and the comfortable setting of my own house helps to remove the stress of school.”
Ms. Smith captured first place honors in the individual website category of last year’s National History Day competition. She is a very hard working young woman who displays exceptional determination in every aspect of her life.
“I’m also currently looking forward to winter sports starting up in January,” Ms. Smith said. “The pre-season workouts that were held before last week’s snowstorm have created the sense of normalcy that I was looking for.”
Ms. Smith is studying photography this year with teacher Pamela Piffard-Williams and she headed out into the newly fallen snow to shoot photos for a snow day assignment late last week. She snapped a really cool one of her sister, Cameron lying in the bright white snow while her brother, Zackary played nearby outside of the frame.
“It was very hard trying to keep my siblings out of the snow long enough for me to even grab a camera, so when I walked outside to find my sister lying in the snow like this, I knew it would be a perfect shot for a snow day project,” Ms. Smith said.
The teenager uses two different cameras to take photographs, her cell phone camera and a Canon EOS R. Phone cameras have come a very long way and are now capable of taking very good photos.
“I’ve never been the type of person who enjoyed or was good at taking photos,” Ms. Smith said. “Embarrassingly, I only have about 100 photos on my camera roll that I’ve taken over the past three years. But I wanted to take photography because I wanted to learn all the different techniques to make the photos that I do take much better. Photography also teaches me that even the most familiar of household objects can be the subject of an engaging photo.”
Ms. Smith will once again be participating in the National History Day initiative. She hasn’t divulged her topic yet.