Former CHS sophomore, Bella Hamm recently transferred to Inspire in order to further pursue her career as a dancer. Inspire is known as a charter school for ages K-12 and is located in Montclair. After training for several years at the studio Inland Pacific Ballet and dancing for a total of eight years, she decided that transferring to Inspire will help her balance school and the long hours of dancing by giving her the opportunity to work at her own pace. For academics, she will primary be studying online.
At her new school, Hamm will be taking similar courses to the ones she was previously enrolled in at CHS, such as history, chemistry, and math. By transferring to Inspire, she no longer needs to be concerned about her other classmates and only needs to focus on her own work process at her own pace. Additionally, Hamm’s new school will allow her to get closer to becoming a professional dancer and help her improve as both a dancer and as a student.
“I feel Inspire is going to really help me grow not only academically, but as a dancer,” Hamm said. “This new lifestyle will better benefit me on how to balance all the important aspects in my life, whether it is dance or my academics.”
In the meantime, Hamm will be focusing on ballet and contemporary dance by following a strict schedule of daily practice. Now that Hamm is taking online courses, she will gain more time to work on her dancing skills. On Mondays and Wednesdays, she has ballet for a total of three hours and one hour of schooling. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, Hamm has over an hour of pilates and three hours of schooling. Despite the heavy hours of both dancing and studying, she gets a rest day on Fridays, where she does not have to go to school. However, Hamm shows her determination to improve by continuing to practice around 4:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
By transferring to Inspire, Hamm is happy at her school and is glad to have so many options to explore and branch out to new possibilities as a dancer. She will now spend twice as much time doing what she loves throughout the day, while still maintaining a formal education. Hamm will grow to learn how to balance responsibility and also challenge herself for more. CHS wishes her the best and is glad to see her take a new step further in her career.