Feature Story on North Hills’ Sadie Dunlap

Sadie Dunlap is rummaging through prom dress after prom dress, sorting for hours, to make every girls’ Say Yes to The Dress experience unforgettable. The girl behind the scenes of North Hills, Senior Class President, and leader on and off the soccer field. Prior to the interview I knew very little about her roles and I’m sure the rest of the school has limited knowledge on just how much time and effort she puts into making the school a better place for everyone. 

Serving as class President has been a rewarding experience in her eyes. In the wise words of Sadie, “As President, I make decisions on the different events that class officers host and also on behalf of my class. And that’s about it.” As you can tell she is extremely humble about her large role in the school. Not only is she class President for her senior year, but she was also the class treasurer in sixth grade. She sadly missed the cutoff for submitting her application freshman year, but she bounced back sophomore year and took the title of vice President. And the past two years she has held the role of class President. A lot of the time change is sparked when the senior class states changes they want to events and head to Sadie to see if she can work her magic. She listens to them and brings it up to Mrs. Pedrosky or Mrs. Zimmerman to see if they can begin the change. Not only does Sadie’s role strongly impact our school but it also impacts her. She says that she has learned how to “deal with criticism, how to communicate to people in meetings and to the rest of the class, time management and also general planning skills.” 

Not only is Sadie class President but she is also extremely involved in extracurricular activities through the school. After a quick warning that the list was long I prompted her to go for it. She is an “officer in Hands For Service, officer in Spanish Club, officer in SADD Club, member of National Honors Society and Spanish National Honors Society, I’m on the girls soccer team, and a part of the class officers.” I then narrowed in on her athletic career. She has been playing soccer since she was four and said it taught her “how to not take myself too seriously because honestly I’ve never been that good at soccer or been the best player on any of the teams. So it’s just been humbling but also fun. I like soccer.” I know what we are all thinking at this point. How does one stay sane after being involved in that much? Seriously, how does she find balance? Her response was “Honestly it’s been really hard to find balance. It’s not something that I have prioritized all the time. Learning how to manage my time has been one of the hardest things I’ve had to do. By getting everything that you need to get done finished first and also making sure you’re making time to just be with your friends, watch a show or just relax is really important for me.” 

North Hills is going to be a completely different school once Sadie’s gone but her future is extremely bright. Next year she plans to go to Duquesne and enter into their accelerated physician assistant program. Her knowledge, experience, and involvement in many aspects of the school will leave with her and transfer to her plans. She is well prepared and ready to take on whatever the future holds.