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Anamarie Drinen has made the most of her time at Flagstaff High School (FHS), joining a variety of elective classes and extracurricular activities and teaching other students what she's learned. 

Drinen will be graduating Friday as part of the Class of 2025. She's already been recognized at her school's senior awards ceremony with the PEO Star Scholarship, the English department award and the Outstanding Senior Scholar Athlete awards, among others.

Drinen said she enjoys both learning and passing along knowledge -- which can be seen in her after-school activities.

She's the president of the National Honors Society, which has been working to raise awareness of the tutoring sessions it offers to other students.

Drinen joined during her sophomore year and provides math tutoring.

This year, she became old enough to volunteer as a coach with the Flagstaff Youth Riders (FLYRS) mountain biking program, helping the younger students learn to ride. She’s member of the bike team herself, returning to mountain biking in her senior year after a few years� break to play volleyball.

“It's a lot about focusing on endurance and determination and pushing through even when it's hard,� Drinen said of the FLYRS program. “That translates to a lot of life.�

Her primary sport is tennis, which she said began in freshman year "as a joke" before becoming invested. The FHS tennis team qualified for the quarterfinals in the Division II state tournament last year, and this year Drinen made it to the second round in the singles championship, placing her in the top 16.

Drinen, who plays both singles and doubles in tennis, said she enjoys the interplay between the individual and team elements of the sport.

"Each game looks individual, but you are competing as a team," she said. "I think that works well for me, where I can go into my own little world and push myself, but you’re still playing a team sport where you’re supporting each other and you’re pushing each other."

While Drinen said she’s still figuring out what she wants to do after finishing school, she knows she wants to be able to help others while working in STEM.

“I’ve always loved the math, chemistry, physics side of school,� she said. � ... I really liked the idea that there’s a correct number down to a certain amount of decimal places, and this year that’s what really clicked for me. �

Her plan is to learn more about the options available to her in college, though right now she’s considering teaching, medicine or engineering.

"I really want to focus on something that’s going to help people," she said. "I can be kind of pessimistic about where the world’s going, but I want to do something where I feel like I’m serving the larger community. I don’t necessarily know what that is, but I think that's going to be a very, very important part of any job that I take.�

Drinen will be attending Carleton College in Minnesota starting in the fall, saying she’s excited for the small classes, trimester schedule and even the winter weather, as she wants to try cross country skiing and ice skating.

“They have a really heavy emphasis on teachers and having really small classes, great professors -- which I've really come to value through high school," she said. "My favorite classes have been the ones where I love the teacher and the teacher’s really dedicated, even more so than what the subject is. � It's made a huge difference for me.�

She's taken elective classes that focus on skills she can use in other areas. Drinen said she's been using techniques learned in graphic design for presentations and class projects, for one example. She's also taken four years of high school Spanish and passed the bilingual test (though she noted she's not fully bilingual) and said she wants to keep studying the language to be able to use in a future career.

Drinen said her high school experience had taught her the importance of mentorship. She mentioned chemistry teacher Joel Steiger and calculus teacher Kevin Salmon as standouts, noting the amount of effort Steiger puts into each student's learning and Salmon's visible enthusiasm for both math and teaching.

Steve Boadway, who began coaching tennis at FHS around the same time Drinen joined the team, was also influential.

“He’s been so positive and supportive and wonderful," she said. "I think knowing that, having that attitude to anything, even if it's unexpected, can make a huge difference in somebody's life and make a really, really positive impact. I’m trying to bring that into whatever I do.�