by James C. Sherlock
Freedom High Seniors Waiting to Receive their Diplomas. Credit Hazel Nguyen, Design Editor, Uncaged (student Newspaper at Freedom)
Part 1 of a series.
Sometimes, even at my age and experience, I am legitimately surprised.
After writing about the growth of leadership, support and administrative staffs in both institutions of higher learning and the public schools, I thought I had the picture.
I did not.
Then I looked at Freedom High School in Loudoun County.
This article is not meant to reflect criticism, just amazement.
Freedom High School in Chantilly has about 2,000 students each year.
Student demographics last reported were 42% percent white, 38% Asian, 9% Hispanic, 6% Black, and 5% multiple races.
- Chronic absenteeism was half of that statewide.
- Free and reduced price meal eligibility was 1/5th of the state average.
With median household income in Chantilly of $131,362 annually, Freedom has one of the least economically challenged student bodies in Virginia. Langley High School, drawing from McLean, with a median household income of $242,610, has, and is likely to keep, that record all to itself.
But Freedom has a larger percentage of students from wealthy families than all but a few Virginia public schools.
Freedom High features, in addition to its teaching staff:
- A principal
- 3 Assistant Principals
- A Registrar
- A ParentVue contact
- An Athletic Director
- An Assistant Athletic Director
- A Special Education Dean
- 3 Secretaries
- A Bookkeeper
- A School Nurse
- A Lead School Security Officer
- 2 Safety and Security personnel
- 2 School Resource Officers (Deputy Sheriffs)
- An Attendance Administrative Assistant
And then there is its Unified Mental Health Team:
- Director, School Counseling
- 9 additional School Counselors
- A School Psychologist
- A School Social Worker
- A Student Assistance Specialist
Each represents a full-time job. It is a big school in the wealthiest county in America, but I am astonished nonetheless.
Freedom students, unsurprisingly, blew away the SOLs.
Of the 2,023 graduates, three are headed to Ivies. If you wonder where UVa gets its Asian-American students, not a few of them are from Freedom.
These are the 2023 Freedom seniors headed to UVa:
- Jamie Anastasi
- Adithya Balasubramaniam
- Hannah Bartz
- Nikhil Boyalla
- Anushri Chatterjee
- Ryan DelVecchio
- Madhav Donepudi
- Caroline Egger
- Sabrina Farooq
- Manmayi Ghaisas
- Zara Hameed
- Rishi Kandimalla
- Lily Kang
- Areeb Khan
- Angie Kim
- Nikhil Limgala
- Umar Luqman
- Sarah Maiwald
- Ronit Malhotra
- Sneha Moothedan
- Visvajit Murali
- Srikar Nadella
- Christine Nguyen
- Lucy Nguyen
- Adhira Prasanna
- Meghan Puppala
- Varun Rajan
- Arjun Rao
- Pratha Ravani
- Grafton Rentz
- Nicole Shou
- Dhanya Sriram
- Daniel Tanudjaja
- Mira Thaloor
- Matthew Wang
- Matthew Werfel
- George Yao
- Isaac Yoo
- Eisabel Zamora
- Emma Zimmerman
They did the work. They earned what they got. We look forward to their contributions to society.
Congratulations to each of them.
