Future vocal performers, illustrators, and screenwriters are on campus every day. SENIORS Ella Vaugn, Phoenix Brumm-Jost, and Oliver Wallace are planning to begin their futures with a major in the fine

arts.

Vaugn plans to major in vocal performance, hoping to become a classical singer. She began singing at an early age and stuck with it her whole life. Vaugn enjoyed that singing was a learned skill, requiring training to achieve the depths needed to sing classically.

“I’ve sung all my life, but I started classical singing about five years ago, and I really liked it. My voice teacher introduced me to it and then I just stuck with it,” Vaugn said.

However, it can be difficult to make a living as a classical singer because there are many steps needed to become successful in the field.

“You would go get an artist diploma and then do a young artist program at an opera house. Then you go into teaching, and then hopefully, you make it big and start performing in different opera houses,” Vaugn said.

Despite Vaugn’s vocal experience and love for singing, she has also considered pursuing other jobs.

“I’m worried I might get burned out and not love [singing] as much,” Vaugn said. “After four years of college, I think I will go to graduate school for psychology because I find that really interesting, but I want to try to incorporate psychology with music.”

Brumm-Jost is another soon-to-be college student who wants to have a career in the fine arts. Specifically, Brumm-Jost plans to pursue a career in illustration for comic books and cartoons.

“I have been obsessed with comic books for as long as I can remember,” Brumm-Jost said. “I’ve always liked drawing comics. You can do all kinds of different scenes with one image or one piece.”

Comic books have been rising in popularity as well, making the position as a comic writer more of a reality for people.

“If I had my own comic book at marvel, that’d be the ultimate goal. I’ve also thought about going into cartoon writing or drawing cartoons because that’s another one of those things that is like comic books,” Brumm-Jost said.

For many students, having a hobby to escape to can be relaxing from the large and stressful workload of WHHS.

“I went to a montessori school in elementary [school] and I don’t remember ever having an actual lesson or class and then I got here and suddenly it was all structured and there were tons of deadlines,” Brumm-Jost said.

Wallace took a slightly different route from other students interested in a fine-art major. Rather than going into the visual arts or illustrations, Wallace aspires to go into scree

nwriting and film.

“I’m planning to write TV shows and have them be sold to a streaming service,” Wallace said. “I write a lot of love stories. The show I’m writing right now is just a love story of various characters at college.”

However, Wallace didn’t always want to be a screenwriter. It was a combination of his love for TV and writing that led him to this decision.

“I like that your books can have a strict idea of your vision. However, I am also a collaborator, so I find that with screenwriting, you get to hear multiple voices,” Wallace said.

Wallace expresses that writing an episode for a show can be a difficult task.

“Writing is a very long process of just staring at your computer screen. Sometimes, I don’t want to have to write out characters and plan it all through,” Wallace said.

Wallace has ways to manage writer’s block that help them get ready to write again.

“I just take a break, listen to music, and get back to it eventually. I love it, but it’s just exhausting sometimes,” Wallace said.

Regardless of writer’s block and other challenges, Wallace still has big dreams and plans to accomplish them.

“I really want to be an EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony) winner,” Wallace said. “So I want to strengthen my writing in other fields such as playwriting and songwriting.”