Monday, June 15, 2020
Elizabeth holds up her award smiling.
Woodland High School’s Elisabeth Patnode received the Silent Servant Student Award from the Peter R. Marsh Foundation which includes a special plaque along with a $500 grant for use to Elisabeth’s future plans.


Elisabeth received the award for the countless hours of community service she performed. In addition to volunteer work with her church, she has been volunteering at the Love Street Playhouse since she was eight years old. “It’s basically my second home,” she said. “I’ve been a part of Girl Scouts since I was little, and a big part of what they teach you is the value of volunteer work, so I’ve continued giving my time whenever I can as I’ve grown older.”

Following graduation from high school this summer, Elisabeth plans to attend St. Martens University located in Lacey, Washington where she will major in elementary education. “Since I was little, I’ve always wanted to be a teacher, and my goal is to teach a school in Africa,” she said. “I learned about this special school through my church’s priest who spent a great deal of time in Africa.”

During the school closure, Elisabeth has been spending time growing a large vegetable garden and focusing on her studies. In fact, while she’s not a fan of remote learning, Elisabeth said the statewide closure of schools gave her back some extra time. “I had so many extracurricular activities before that I found myself a little tired between them and my studies,” she said. “Now, I was able to focus entirely on my schoolwork which was also nice because having schoolwork gave me something to focus on during the stay-at-home order.

For Elisabeth, the most challenging part of the statewide school closure was not seeing friends and teachers. “It has been difficult having to go without that interaction that comes from physically being at school,” she said. “I miss my friends and all the teachers – being with people is what I miss most.”

To learn more about how Woodland Public Schools continues educating our students and serving the community during the statewide closure, visit our dedicated news webpage at https://www.woodlandschools.org/home-learning-stories

Please, send me your stories!

Email your stories with photos and/or video to jacobsoe@woodlandschools.org