Gwen | Wake County 100

Narrative, Continued:

This year Gwen has recently made the honor roll at school and feels that this is a great accomplishment. This quarter, as an elective, Gwen has chosen to do modern dance, which is from 10:05-10:50am everyday. She usually has between one and two hours of homework to finish. One of her chores in the afternoon is to feed her chinchilla, which is called Chimeychanga. Around 7:30p.m. her whole family sits down for dinner and Gwen’s mom serves a delicious homemade meal. Gwen ends her long day by reading a good book or magazine and then falls asleep.

When asked about future plans she responds, “I want to move back to Europe when I’m older. I am thinking about Spain, Portugal or England. I am not sure yet if I want to stay in America for college or not.” But for right now, Gwen is enjoying her life in Wake County.

Written By: Johnny

Gwen

Gender: Female

Age: 5-19

Race: White

Nativity: Foreign Born

Educational Attainment: Still in School

Grade Level: Middle School

Travel Time to School: 5 minutes

Internet Access in the Home: Yes

Religion: None

City: Raleigh

Narrative:

On Tuesday and Thursday evenings, you can find Swiss-born Gwen kicking heavy bags, doing push-ups, and learning how to respond to an attack. Gwen and her sister do karate at Pullen Park Gym. Gwen has been doing karate since she was five years old, and she is now a first-degree black belt. “When I was younger, I watched my sister doing karate. I thought it looked like fun and I wanted to join.” Gwen’s goal is to work toward her second-degree black belt in the next year. After karate, Gwen and her sister go home to their parents and their cousin Franco. Franco, who is sixteen years old, is staying with Gwen’s family for three months to improve his English. Gwen and her whole family moved to a rental property in Wake County from Zurich Switzerland in 1996, when she and her sister were quite little. Their family moved because of her Dad’s business, which is creating and selling computer software. When Thomas and Petra moved here with their family they were not planning on staying in America for seven years. Every summer and winter break Gwen, Zora and their parents take a ten hour plane ride to Switzerland to visit their cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents, who still live there. At home Gwen’s family speaks Swiss German and English. Gwen is also fluent is German and is taking Spanish classes at her school. Gwen, Zora and Franco frequently play soccer and jump on their trampoline in their big back yard together.

Gwen’s personal opinion of Wake County is that it is nice, and not too over populated. She enjoys the pleasant people in her community and the nature that surrounds her. One specific thing that does bother Gwen is that she thinks Wake County is building too many roads. Gwen’s mom spends some of her free time volunteering at the library. Gwen, her sister and their mother sometimes take a couple hours out of their weekend to volunteer at a variety of places.

The Doon School