{"id":24550,"date":"2019-05-30T17:36:00","date_gmt":"2019-05-30T23:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/the-peak-school-summits-only-private-secondary-school-will-have-its-graduation-ceremony-on-friday\/"},"modified":"2019-05-30T17:36:00","modified_gmt":"2019-05-30T23:36:00","slug":"the-peak-school-summits-only-private-secondary-school-will-have-its-graduation-ceremony-on-friday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/local-news\/the-peak-school-summits-only-private-secondary-school-will-have-its-graduation-ceremony-on-friday\/","title":{"rendered":"The Peak School, Summit\u2019s only private secondary school, will have its graduation ceremony on Friday"},"content":{"rendered":"
Elli VanDeYacht is a member of The Peak School’s graduating class of 2019. VanDeYacht is a U.S. Figure Skating single Gold Medalist, with ambitions to become a triple or quadruple Gold Medalist.<\/strong>
Courtesy of Elli VanDeYacht \/ Special to the Daily<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Peak School in Frisco, Summit\u2019s only private secondary school, will be seeing off the eight members of its 2019 graduating class on Friday. The small class size is a hallmark of the prep school in the mountains, where curriculums are built around students who are given freedom to be themselves and pursue their dreams.<\/p>\n

Students at the Peak School come from a variety of backgrounds and tend to have unique circumstances requiring a different kind of education. Two of Peak\u2019s graduates \u2014 Elli VanDeYacht and Cassidy Citron \u2014 benefited from Peak\u2019s flexible approach to secondary education.<\/p>\n

VanDeYacht has been figure skating for over 14 years. The demands of her training schedule meant she had to find a school that could work around it while giving her a full education.<\/p>\n

\u201cI transitioned to a different coach in Vail, which meant I was driving over there five times a week in the mornings and afternoons,\u201d VanDeYacht said. \u201cSchool had to be flexible, both for me and Peak.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the flexible scheduling helped, VanDeYacht was responsible for being on top of the academic routine, which instilled a clockwork mentality and put her in more control of the direction of her education.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause of how demanding my schedule is, it meant I had to be thoroughly on top of my academics,\u201d VanDeYacht said. \u201cPeak allowed me to have more control over my schedule, but I was also talking to teachers and making sure I was getting my assignments and not missing important information. It made me a more pro-active with academics.\u201d<\/p>\n

VanDeYacht is now a single U.S. Figure Skating gold medalist, which requires a grueling series of trials before passing the senior, or \u201cgold\u201d test, in one of several skating disciplines. She is one test away from becoming a double gold medalist, with an ambition to become a triple or quadruple gold medalist later on.<\/p>\n

VanDeYacht has also played hockey with Summit Hockey as part of its under-19 women\u2019s squad, although a history of concussions is making her reconsider whether it\u2019s something she\u2019d want to do competitively again.<\/p>\n

As for her future, VanDeYacht will be attending and skating at the University of Denver, where she\u2019s on the fence between pursuing psychology or business and accounting.<\/p>\n

As for Citron, dancing has been her passion for 14 years. But for her, it wasn\u2019t just Peak\u2019s willingness to accommodate her dancing that made it the right fit.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was in grade school, I was a little accelerated,\u201d Citron said. \u201cMy parents decided to move me to Peak School in the sixth grade since it\u2019s a school for people who were a little different, and I\u2019ve been there ever since.\u201d<\/p>\n

After graduation, Citron will take a gap year before attending the University of Puget Sound in Washington state. She will spend the first half of the year working in Summit and the second half in a gap year program doing service work and homestays in the Pacific Islands with Adventures Cross Country.<\/p>\n

Citron is excited about the next chapter of her life and believes that Peak\u2019s environment helped her get where she wants to go. She believes Peak is an ideal place for Summit kids like her, who have unique needs and need more room to thrive.<\/p>\n

\u201cSummit County has a lot of people who are just a little bit different; it\u2019s the reason why they came up here,\u201d Citron said. \u201cPeak has a really nurturing environment that allows them to grow in any way they can.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Elli VanDeYacht is a member of The Peak School’s graduating class of 2019. VanDeYacht is a U.S. Figure Skating single Gold Medalist, with ambitions to become a triple or quadruple Gold Medalist.Courtesy of Elli VanDeYacht \/ Special to the Daily The Peak School in Frisco, Summit\u2019s only private secondary school, will be seeing off the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[97],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-24550","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-11 08:56:05","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KIFT - The LIFT FM","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24550\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}