Plans for future created at Venture
Brown-McSwain’s interest in design piqued at CdA school
Maggie Brown-McSwain is about to achieve an important goal – high school graduation.
“My family has not gone through high school, and I want to break the cycle,” said the 17-year-old senior at Coeur d’Alene’s Venture High School. “I’m getting my diploma and getting it on time, and I’m going on to college and want to do well in life.”
She has been accepted at North Idaho College, where she will study computer-aided design this fall.
“Maggie is absolutely amazing,” said Venture teacher Tiege Arman. “She is the most highly motivated, dedicated and respectful student I’ve ever seen in my 14 years of teaching. She is always willing to help and is attentive to her attendance and studies. And she always tries, even if she isn’t confident about the thing she is doing.”
Raised by a single mother, Brown-McSwain has been in charge of the yearbook at Venture, an alternative high school which has a curriculum and environment designed for students who don’t necessarily fit in or do well in traditional high schools. “It’s more of a one-on-one education, more of a family,” Brown-McSwain said. The school is organized into 12 houses or groups for team-building activities, and Brown-McSwain is leader of one of the houses.
She has thrived in the Venture environment, she said, because of ADHD, which causes her to feel overwhelmed in larger schools and not able to concentrate well after mid-afternoon. “It’s not that the coursework is easy – we do a semester’s worth of work in nine weeks – but we take only four courses at a time and we can get our work done during school.” And through the school’s professional technology programs, she has earned certifications in areas such as food safety and woodworking.
Her greatest passion at school is the woodworking shop, which is where she developed her interest in the architectural part of computer-aided design. “There is a lot of technology involved in working with wood,” she said.
She even made a podium for Arman, who works with her on the yearbook. The full-sized podium has the teacher’s name etched in it, as well as the Gonzaga University logo, as Arman is a devoted Bulldogs supporter.
Brown-McSwain is eagerly anticipating college and after earning a two-year CAD degree, will decide whether to continue at the University of Idaho for a bachelor’s degree. It’s important to work for something good for her future, she said.
But Venture and the teachers she is close with there will remain with her. And will she come back to visit?
“Most definitely!”