HIGHLAND

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