Senior Spotlight: Lucy Duckworth (12-1)
Luiza Sulea
Photo courtesy of Lucy Duckworth (12-1)
What do you think you’ll miss most about high school?
I would definitely say the people. I know everyone says that, but there’s something so special about going to such a small school with the same people for 8 years. It’s so weird knowing that everyone is leaving Philly, and we've spent so much time together in the last eight years, but I’m excited to see where everyone goes and all the great things they do.
You’re going pretty far for college (Lucy is going to Stanford)! What compelled you to choose Stanford?
I’ve never actually been in person on campus, so fingers crossed I like it! We couldn't tour because everything was online. I was at home for 6 months during quarantine and was really excited to try to live somewhere new. It was also very cold and rainy [in Philly] when I applied and I was into the warm weather. Other than that, it had the programs I was looking for, I love the spirit of the school, and I’m just excited to live in California.
If you could give one piece of advice to your freshman self, what would it be?
Do the things you are genuinely interested in [and] make you happy! Masterman is such a competitive school, and it can be really stressful, but if I had listened to what I really liked to do and just did that, high school would've been so much more fun. Join everything your freshman year! So many connections and friends you make are through those activities.
Have any of your clubs or activities been particularly important to you during high school?
It’s so funny reading through my yearbook, because everyone has a long list of things that they’re involved with at school; I had a few, but they were more on and off. I joined Voices my junior year, and as soon as I joined, I wished I had joined sooner! Freshman, if you like to write at all, join Voices! Shameless plug... You get so much freedom to write about what you want. Outside of school, I worked at restaurants for four years, and I really loved that. Even though I'm not going to be a chef right now, it was definitely a formative experience. I think that there’s a whole component that any job offers: showing up and learning how to listen to a boss. I was very young and sometimes the only girl in the room. I had to learn how to act like an adult, collaborate, and stick up for myself! Beyond that, I love to cook and bake, so it was a fun and special experience to get to do that.
What is your favorite thing to cook or bake?
Right now, it’s cobbler season, so I’m getting very excited about cobblers. I’m also actually going to make pineapple sorbet after this!
I’ve noticed you’ve been tagging @myphotolounge on your Instagram. What is PhotoLounge? How has photography influenced your pandemic experience?
My friends make fun of me for that, because I don’t think of captions anymore... I just tag PhotoLounge. Another shameless plug! PhotoLounge is a small business in Center City. It’s a camera shop that also develops film, which is a trend now [and] why I heard about it. I do a little bit of promo for them, but if you ever have a disposable camera or film pictures or any camera needs, if you want prints, definitely go to PhotoLounge! They do great work, they’re so friendly, and it’s better than going to a chain. I’m not sure if I can continue that while I’m at school, but it was such a fun thing to do my senior year with a lot of my friends. After we turned in our college applications, we had nothing to do, so it was really fun to be creative. There’s something about the anticipation of getting your pictures back and having to be intentional about the pictures you take, because the film is expensive. It’s fun, and it’s great to capture memories.
You were involved with Poll Hero last fall during the election. What inspired you to take part in it, and what was that experience like?
Last summer I saw an ad for it on Instagram, and it was a time when we were all prepping for the general election. As someone who was too young to vote, it was hard to know what you could do to contribute. It was such a weird year, and there ended up being a need for poll workers, so it seemed perfect! It was something very concrete to do. You could show up and help run an election, it’s very nonpartisan, you could get to know members of your community. Working on that project was so much fun. I met so many people from across the country, and it was so fun to see the project grow and see people get fired up about it. I was a poll worker for the second time this May, and both times were stressful, hectic experiences. I’ve learned so much about taking responsibility. Those have been crazy experiences, but definitely very fulfilling. I would totally recommend, if you’re 17 or 18, be a poll worker! You learn so much about the voting process, about how our city operates these elections, and one of the most fun things was that I met so many members of my community. I actually saw Ms. Waber at the polls!
You’re a section editor for Voices! Do you have a favorite memory from Voices throughout the years?
I did an article in March of 2020 about the coronavirus. I started in February, and it ended up being so much more interesting and eventful than I had planned it being. I had been following the coronavirus’s progression since January, and I decided to write an article about it when it wasn’t going away and was getting closer to the US. It ended up being so fascinating. I talked to people in China who were dealing with it first, and it was a great experience. I did so much research and felt like reading the news wasn’t so scary to me, having talked to all these experts about it. I kind of had a realization of what was going to happen before March 13th. It ended up being a much more eventful article than I had planned, but that was definitely very interesting.
What are some activities on your bucket list?
I know this is a cliche at this point, but there is so much traveling I want to do. Drew Brown and I have a joint yearbook quote that we want to rent a two-bedroom loft in Tribeca in our twenties, so that’s on my bucket list.
If you could combine any two animals, what would they be?
This is also lame, but the personality and adorableness of a golden retriever without the shedding and messiness. I always wanted one as a kid, but my parents always said it was too messy. In a perfect world, I’d have a pristine non-animal animal.