Alumni Spotlight: Carrington Hodge!
Our second Alumni Spotlight honoree this year is Carrington Hodge, who was named the 2023 Distinguished Young Woman of America! In June, she won the national title in this scholarship competition that celebrates young womens’ successes. As Distinguished Young Woman, Carrington’s responsibilities include service projects, public appearances, and speaking engagements. Carrington attended Advent from Pre-Kindergarten through 8th Grade and graduated in 2019 before going on to Jefferson County International Baccalaureate. She is now a freshman at Vanderbilt University, where she is a member of the dance team and plans to pursue a degree in neuroscience.
Carrington featured on the inaugural episode of the “Advent Voices: Conversations with Claire” podcast, where she spoke about her experiences growing up at Advent and how her years here helped prepare her for success in high school and college.
Carrington shared insight about some of her favorite memories of being a student here, especially getting to grow up alongside her classmates, foster close relationships with teachers, and forge special connections with everyone in the community. She says that Advent’s academic curriculum, with a focus on learning how to write a paper, perform analysis, and think critically, prepared her for a smooth transition to rigorous high school and college environments. She also highlighted a key part of the Advent experience: the nurturing community, which centers on a whole child approach. The compassion and communication that younger students experience from teachers and older students encourage them to grow into kind, confident, well-rounded individuals.
As an alum, Carrington is excited to attend Lessons and Carols and sing “O Holy Night” alongside current students and fellow alumni, including her father. She also left us with some advice for Advent students: always listen to your teachers because they are there to be a guiding light; try new things, take risks, and get involved; always say hi to people you look up to, especially other students, because the Advent community extends beyond the years you spend here, and those connections will last forever.
We are so proud of everything Carrington has accomplished and we cannot wait to follow along and see where her hard work takes her next. Carrington’s episode of “Advent Voices: Conversations with Claire” is available on all podcast platforms now, and we encourage you to give it a listen!
