Community, Small Classrooms, and eye-opening experiences – An Alumni's Reflections

Alumni Interview: Lucy Cole

Lucy Cole is an ICS “lifer” and attended ICS for 14 years, graduating in 2022. She currently attends the University of Utah and lives off campus. She is majoring in marketing with a minor in parks, recreation and tourism.

When she looks at her ICS tenure, she credits her experience in athletics for helping her decide on a major. A visiting professor came to one of her classes and discussed sports marketing, and Lucy was intrigued. She has since been doing an athletic internship with the U’s athletic department and is enjoying it.

Lucy is grateful for all the travel opportunities she had while an ICS student. She recently wrote a college essay about her experiences on the music tour and how much she learned during that time away. The field studies trips fueled Lucy’s desire to travel and see more of the world. By the time she graduated from ICS, she was ready to intentionally seek out more of those opportunities. Lucy will be studying abroad in South Korea this fall!

Lucy’s class graduated 26 students. She believes being part of such a small class led to the opportunity to be poured into by all of her teachers. Making the jump from ICS to a large state university was not without its challenges. Lucy looks back on the small classrooms and appreciates the one on one attention and conversations that she had with her teachers and other students.

Lucy encourages ICS high school students not to waste the opportunities to seek community and plug in. It’s easy to think of the four years of high school as being very temporary, but looking back, Lucy values the tightness she had with her classmates. She is still in contact with some of her ICS classmates and regularly serves with some through Young Life.

Lucy thinks after graduating from the University of Utah, she may pursue life in another state. She spent the summer of 2023 at Crater Lake National Park working in the gift shop there. She may revisit Oregon or pursue life in the Carolinas. Wherever Lucy pursues the next steps, she will fondly remember the time spent in the hallways at ICS.

Emma Clement's Lion Story

Emma Clement’s Lion Story

I owe much of who I am to Intermountain Christian School. The people inside that building prepared me in my academics, pushed me on the volleyball and basketball courts, and encouraged me to try new things like debate and musical theater. Coming into my freshman year of college I was so nervously excited. There was so much newness and I didn’t know a single soul at Samford, but going to ICS equipped me to thrive in the real world. I have been given a great foundation of who I am in Christ by learning from people like Mr. Begg and Mrs. Jones. I am academically ready because of Mrs. Croswhite and Mrs. Schumacher’s English classes. Because I had learned how to make deep friendships on my sports teams, I was prepared to make the best friends of my life in college. The teachers at ICS taught me how to love my peers well, how to do well in my classes (sometimes learned the hard way, shoutout to college Anatomy and Physiology), and how to live out my faith daily, especially when times get tough. I am now a sophomore at Samford University and can confidently say I am thriving in the midst of a global pandemic, the irony! Some of the most important lessons I learned while in high school that have helped me be successful in college are: to not take yourself too seriously, spend time with Jesus every day, humbly listen to others, love people well and fully, and call your family lots, you’ll miss them when they’re 1,759 miles away. What I learned at ICS and the people who taught them to me are things I will never forget. I am extremely grateful to be an Intermountain Christian School alumnus today and for the foundation they gave me to succeed in college and beyond. 

Emma Clement, Class of 2019