My name is Megan Boutwell, and I graduated from GRACE in 2019. I grew up in Holly Springs and moved to Cary in high school. I attended GRACE from 4th to 12th grade, and am currently at UNC-Chapel Hill majoring in human development and family science. I am graduating early this December and am very open to what is to come. I have often thought about teaching, so I may potentially go down that route.
What did you appreciate most about GRACE as a student?
It is oftentimes hard for students to appreciate school while they are in the midst of it. However, I always considered myself blessed to be able to see the benefits of being at GRACE while I was a student. For me, the small class sizes, the opportunity to build relationships with the staff, and truly feeling “known, valued, and loved” were parts that I really appreciated. Overall, the support I received from GRACE was incredible. Looking back, however, I appreciate the Christian education that I was given the most. Being able to study things from a Christian worldview is something I took for granted, but after being at a secular university for 3 ½ years, it is very missed.
I understand you're doing an internship with Dr. Hawley, as well as working with some of the GCS juniors and seniors. What sorts of things are you helping with?
I am thrilled to be back at GRACE this semester working as an intern for Dr. Hawley. I have also been able to hang out a bit in Mrs. Howard’s classroom and read some college essays, which has been so much fun! For my internship, I am working on a few different projects – the main one being mental health education for high school seniors, with a focus on post-grad transition. I am also on the Lower Campus helping Katie Roof and Dr. Hawley with social-emotional learning (SEL) and just wherever I am needed.
You started a worship night while at GCS - tell us about that.
At the beginning of my senior year, some of my classmates and I decided that it would be great if we did a worship night for our grade. This was not something we had heard of other grades doing, but something that we wanted to do. We had a worship night for most of the year, and we would switch off houses to host it. It was beautiful – singing with my classmates on Wednesday evenings, praising our Maker. At this point it was just our grade, and a good portion of us were consistently going. Everything changed with the passing of then-GRACE student Skylar McCardle. I will never forget that day. It was absolutely heartbreaking, as I sat there next to her friends watching them grieve. The whole school was grieving. At that point, the most important thing to me was seeing the 8th-graders not abandon their faith during this tragedy, but rely on their faith in God to get through that time. We decided we would open up our worship nights to the 8th grade, hoping that they would feel cared for and know that, although we were older, we wanted to be a support for them. GRACE is a community, and it really shows through the most difficult of times.
What do you hope the students who have gotten to interact with you this year will walk away with? What sort of impression do you hope you'll leave behind?
My biggest hope for the students that interact with me is to see that, above all else, your relationship with God matters most. I pray that they would not take for granted the Christian education that they have been blessed with, and that they would soak it up before they leave. Specifically for the seniors, I am hoping that they would get a realistic view of college from me, and that they would be more prepared for the transition to college in regards to their physical, mental, and spiritual health.
Would you like to nominate another GCS alumnus for a spotlight? Email us at [email protected] for more information.