In this photo, Finley Broaddus ‘14, center, is surrounded by her brother Coleman, standing at left, mother Julie, father Ike, and sister Callie ‘08, kneeling at right with their dog Riley, at home in Broad Run.
Elizabeth Finley Broaddus A tribute to Finley Broaddus by Cathy Campbell Upper School English Teacher and Dean of Students “Finley: the name called out by classmates in crowded school halls, and posted proudly by the paintings on the wall. Elizabeth is my first name, but most people know me as Finley.” Finley Broaddus ’14, William and Mary application essay On a Friday evening last November, Finley Broaddus sat on a couch in Highland’s College Counseling Office working on her William and Mary essay. She had been working on it off and on for weeks, but now at 6:00pm the Early Decision midnight deadline loomed large. The building had mostly cleared out, except for a dozen or so students who were headed downtown to see “Romeo and Juliet” with members of the English faculty. While the theatergoers ate pizza in the student lounge, I sat down with Finley to discuss the latest draft of her supplemental essay. Finley’s heart was set on William and Mary, so this was high-stakes writing. A gifted writer, she was nevertheless struggling, like every senior before and since, with the daunting task of trying to squeeze the enormity of a life into a few hundred words. Beyond your impressive academic credentials and extracurricular accomplishments, the prompt instructed, what else makes you unique and colorful? Provide us with some suggestion of the type of person you are. She wanted to get it right, to explain who she was, what motivated her, and why she wanted to study environmental science in college. When I stood up thirty minutes later to board the bus to DC, Finley remained on the couch, fingers moving over the keyboard, fully focused on the task at hand. “Within about ten minutes of meeting me, people register two things: 1) I have green eyes and 2) My greatest ambition is to do everything I can to protect the environment. As a child, I often wondered if my eyes were green because of the countless hours I spent gazing into the bottle-green water of the pond in my backyard.” “Seventeen years (and a few biology classes) later, I’m aware that staring at something can’t magically change the color of your eyes. Nevertheless, my green eyes are my favorite feature; they remind me of who I am and what I want to accomplish. …Green means go; it is a call to action, and I am ready to respond.” (William and Mary essay excerpt) Fall 2014 Highland Magazine 29
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