Hallie Coleman

For Hallie Coleman, high school has been about friendship, growth, and challenges. Wherever Hallie goes, she makes an effort to connect with the people around her.

Hallie Coleman has played basketball since she was 8 years old. The sport has helped her learn how to be a team player and how to manage her time, but most importantly, it taught her about interactions.

“Basketball for sure has helped me with learning how to be a team player and learning how to manage my time,” Coleman said. “But mostly, I learned how to interact with different types of people. The friendships I’ve built on the team [at FUHS] taught me how to treat people.”

Since freshman year, Hallie has worked with NHS and CSF as well as her church, EV Free, to be involved in the community and the world. Her most recent mission trip was to Ukraine to teach English.

“I’ve gone on mission trips that really helped me to grow and learn new things about myself,” Coleman said. “Those [trips] are really challenging, and they stretch you in a way that you don’t think is possible. Those trips have been great for developing who I am.”

Hallie values service above many things, but she realized that she sometimes needs to put herself first.

“Obviously you’re not going to get along with everyone and that’s just life, and I think that’s something I’ve had to learn,” Coleman said. “Doing stuff for myself has been something big for me as well as learning from my friendships and the difficulties I’ve had.”

Hallie always held this idea of perfection, but achieved her real goals in the realization that true perfection doesn’t exist.

“I had so many expectations for high school, and I wanted to be the perfect basketball player, get straight A’s, and just be this perfect person who had a perfect life, but that’s not what high school is about,” Coleman said. “I wish I had told myself that so that for the last four years, I wasn’t thinking about what I could do to make high school perfect because it’s not going to be and that’s fine. Just experience the four years and take it in.”

Though facing challenges, with the right attitude and a lot of kindness, Hallie overcame difficulties and developed closer friendships.

“Being nice to people makes you feel so much better. You should try to be friends with people because there’s no point in being rude to others,” Coleman said. “My friendships have been difficult, but I think I’ve learned a lot.”

Hallie will attend Oregon State University to major in Mechanical Engineering.