New Vision High School: Matte Wood brought encouragement, support to the classroom

For New Vision High School social studies teacher Rich Raynor, it’s one thing to have a student who simply does the work that’s asked of them.

It’s another when you have a student like Matthew Wood, who not only does the work, but actively wants to learn from it – while encouraging and supporting that behavior among their fellow students, he said.

“Matte’s always been really nice, but the leadership qualities have really come out (in their senior year),” said Raynor, who’s been one of Wood’s teachers at New Vision for the past year and a half. “Matte’s changed quite a bit since they’ve been here at New Visions.”

Wood, one of New Vision’s graduating seniors this year, said they hope to pursue tattoo artistry after graduating this June. They are graduating a year early, having taken enough extra classes to do so.

Getting here wasn’t easy for Wood, who went from failing almost all of their classes in their freshman year at Post Falls High School to A’s at New Vision, they said. As a freshman, they and their fellow students moved to online learning halfway through the year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which didn’t make anything easier, Wood said.

“It’s really easy to not do the work and to get very far behind,” Wood, 17, said of online learning.

Wood transferred to New Vision at the start of their sophomore year, having struggled not only with online classes during the pandemic, but also bullying at Post Falls, said Jenniffer Wood, their mother.

“We just saw a huge change overnight, almost, with them,” she said. “Matte is probably one of the most unique individuals – in a good sense. They just run to the beat of their own drum, has their own sense of style and doesn’t let anybody bring them down.”

Matte Wood said, “(New Vision) is a smaller school. … There’s not really anywhere to hide, so getting out of my comfort zone was probably the biggest challenge I’ve had here, but after I got out of my comfort zone, I found it very comforting.”

Wood, who has been dyeing their hair since middle school, recalls spending a few weeks during the pandemic getting a better sense of self, saying quarantine gave them a chance to “get out of what I thought I was” and find their style.

“I had people come up and talk to me and tell me they liked my clothes and it gave me a lot more confidence to get out of my bubble,” they said. “I just had to talk more and be less worried about what people thought and worrying more about what I was doing.”

Not one for college, Wood said they plan to work toward becoming a tattoo artist after they graduate. Earlier this year, they had a job shadow opportunity at Second Star Tattoo in Post Falls for a senior project.

“I love to draw,” Wood said. “The idea of my art, that I’ve worked with someone to create, existing for a long time, it gives me a sense of purpose.”