Amazing Caroline Tonks is Graduating a Full Year Early
She’s simply amazing. Huntington High School’s Caroline Tonks is graduating a full year early after doubling-up on her classes. The teenager is headed to Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music where she plans to pursue a major in ballet performance.
“Ballet has been my passion for as long as I can remember and I have always dreamed of becoming a professional ballerina,” Ms. Tonks said. “To try to achieve this goal, I have been planning to graduate early since seventh grade. In eighth grade, I took the Earth Science and Algebra Regents, which helped me on this path. Throughout high school I have had a demanding schedule and this has allowed me to only have to double up in English and Social Studies courses this year so I could graduate a full year early.”
Honored at a dinner last month as one of Huntington’s Distinguished Seniors, Ms. Tonks is excited when she thinks about what awaits her in Indiana. “This program is unlike any other college program,” the teenager said. “With only one academic class per semester, dance is the primary focus. The department is conducted as a small company with a very low acceptance rate.”
Ms. Tonks has been selected to receive the Jacob School of Music’s Premier Young Artist Award, which includes a generous scholarship component. “I am so excited for this amazing opportunity next year,” she said.
The teenager said her some of her favorite classes have been the high school’s fashion design program sequence. “My freshman and sophomore years the classes were taught by Ms. [Amy] Worth and this year it was taught by Ms. [Kim] Valerio,” Ms. Tonks said. “These classes have been an amazing experience. This year I was able to make a tutu, which was great in relation to my love of ballet.”
Throughout middle school and high school, Ms. Tonks has been dancing a pre-professional schedule. “I dance 12 hours a week at the Lynch School of Ballet in Huntington, increasing to about 18 hours during performance seasons,” she said. “Karen Lynch has been my teacher since I was five. Ms. Lynch is a dedicated and excellent teacher and she has always inspired me to work hard, believe in myself and follow my dreams.”
July and August have been busy times for Ms. Tonks, too. “I have attended prestigious summer intensive programs at Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle and Houston Ballet,” she said. “I first spent the summer in Seattle when I was 12, which was very exciting! With Lynch Ballet, I have had many wonderful performing experiences, and my favorite roles are Kitri in Don Quixote, the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker and Swanhilda in Coppelia, which we will perform this spring.”
One of the highlights of Ms. Tonks’ time in Huntington involved participating in the Key Club’s K-Factor talent show during her freshman and sophomore years. “My friend Alexandra Smith and I choreographed original contemporary dance works to perform for this amazing event,” she said.
Ms. Tonks will be presented with the Otto Kahn Award for Excellence in the Performing Arts at OHEKA Castle in June during the annual garden party of Friends of OHEKA.
The senior’s demanding scheduled has necessitated a degree of organization and time management that few teenagers need to concern themselves with. “It has sometimes been hard to balance schoolwork and dance, plus all of the other aspects of life, but in the end it has been worth it,” Mr. Tonks said.
While the teenager has traveled an unconventional path to graduation, she fits in perfectly well with her classmates and is very well-respected by her teachers around Huntington High School and the district in general.
“Advice I can give to incoming freshmen is that if you have a dream or a passion, pursue it,” Ms. Tonks said. “Don’t give up on it despite the obstacles that can come your way. It’ll be worth all of the bumps in the road when you get to do what you love every day.”