Class of 2025 Senior Spotlight: Shekinah Annin, Rockwood Summit High

One of Shekinah Annin’s favorite experiences from her time as a Rockwood student was competing in the national Envirothon contest this past summer. She was part of a Rockwood Summit High team that tested its knowledge about environmental sciences and conservation against 48 other teams from the United States, Canada, China and Singapore.

The event combined two of Annin’s loves: learning about the environment and travel. She plans major in Environmental Studies at Saint Louis University in the fall. As for pursuing opportunities to travel, she figures that might be easier if she knew how to fly herself.

“I intend to obtain my private pilot's license and other ratings/licenses with a flight instructor,” she said. “Flying opens up a bunch of career opportunities, and I can always use it for personal traveling. Almost everyone enjoys traveling, so I think that it's cool that I can make a career out of it.”

Annin has enjoyed embracing opportunities to explore varied interests during her time in the Rockwood School District. The Rockwood Summit senior has prepared for her curricular future with classes such as AP Environmental Science with teacher Sarah Moonier and AP Economics with Eric Stewart. She has been involved in activities such as Envirothon, National Honor Society, theater, cross country, track and field and choir.

“People here at Summit are very involved in extracurricular activities, so it led me to highly involve myself as well,” she said. “I was able to expose myself to many different experiences that showed me what I enjoyed and influenced what I wanted to do after high school. Summit also offers a lot of AP classes, which I think has introduced me to the difficulty of college classes. I also get college credit if I get a good score on the AP tests!”

Annin started singing in elementary school and cultivated her voice at Bowles and Rockwood South Middle before earning All-State Choir and a state Solo and Ensemble “Gold” rating at Rockwood Summit.

She also plans to continue singing in college.

“High school choir has opened up so many opportunities that have helped me improve my abilities as a singer while also improving my self-esteem and teaching me the importance of community,” she said. “Envirothon is a big reason why I'm majoring in Environmental Studies. My favorite part of competing was proposing a solution to a presentation prompt to real experts in environmental fields of study.”