Meet Miguel Guevara, Étude Class of 2020 graduate. Miguel is the Salutatorian of this year’s Étude senior class. This fall Miguel will be attending the University of Wisconsin - Madison.

This was Miguel’s first year at Étude High School. While many might have felt transferring senior year was a risk, Miguel recognized the benefits Étude had to offer his future.

“Transferring schools in my senior year is not a decision I thought I would be making prior to the end of my junior year. I decided to take this route, because I felt my creative passions weren’t going to come to fruition throughout my time at my previous school. I also believed that as I had gotten nearly all the necessary credits to graduate early, a conventional route would not give me very much room to explore new concepts and ideas.”

Miguel focused heavily on his musical talent while at Étude. Miguel completed an independent study in Music Theory focusing on jazz performance and composition. He performed with the Étude folk music band, Font 96., at the John Michael Kohler Art Center, Paradigm Coffee and Music, and Jams for Jackson—a benefit for an Étude alum. Miguel also played guitar in the Étude rock band. Finally, Miguel committed his Project Block experience to composing the entire musical score of an original movie written by one of his senior colleagues.

“My artistic passions did come true, and to a further extent than I had originally expected. I did plenty of work with music, an interest I take very seriously, and collaborated with classmates and teachers to make gratifying pieces and experiences.”

Congratulations Miguel and thank you for being a part of the Étude community! Go forth with an excitement for learning, a desire to explore and the knowledge that you are empowered to change the world.

“I wanted to make education personal and meaningful rather than simply confine myself to a system that identifies talent by what my GPA is. That is the mindset that I have created in my time at Étude, and is likely my biggest lesson. My experience here has allowed me to understand that the importance of education isn’t to pass a class and earn good grades, but to take control of what and how you learn to improve yourself for challenges that come after high school. Even more importantly, I found that Étude gave me an opportunity to take my education to places I didn’t have the bandwidth to explore previously. I was able to make my education more personal, take the reins a little more to learn what I believe is important.”