Moorestown Friends Senior Snapshot: Emily Whitley

's commencement will be held at 7 p.m. Saturday. This year's seniors represent the Quaker-founded school's 226th graduating class.

Moorestown Patch will profile five seniors—what they've done, where they're going and what they'll miss—over the next several days leading up to the graduation ceremony.

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Name: Emily Whitley

Age: 18

Activities: Field Hockey, Yearbook Committee, Robotics, Science Olympiad, Envirothon, Ethics Bowl

College: Tufts University

Intended Major: Biology and/or Environmental Studies

Career Interest: A veterinarian or a marine biologist … but that can always change.

Fondest Memory from MFS: There was one time freshman year, when I was in the library with a bunch of other students and we all had this huge biology test that afternoon, and we were all stressing and freaking out about it … We all had our books out and our papers and our notes and we were all just sitting there teaching each other … And I just kind of look back at that and I think how great it was that we were all there working together. It wasn’t, “I need to do better than you.” It was, “I want you to do really well, so I’m gonna help you with this stuff.” I just think that embodies a lot of what MFS is about. It’s about community, it’s about helping each other.

Most Important Thing You Learned at MFS: You really need to rely on your friends, which kind of seems obvious, because it’s what friends are for. It’s hard to kind of branch out to people and ask for help. But I feel like I learned, if you need help, it’s okay to go ask them, there isn’t a stigma about going to your friend for help with something, whether it’s academic or personal.

What You’ll Miss Most: Obviously just the people here, the entire community. My peers, and the teachers. It’s fantastic that the teachers here—they don’t have office hours. They’re just always here if you need them. So you can come by after school and you know your teacher’s gonna be here if you have to ask them for help on a paper. And that’s something that’s kind of taken for granted here … At colleges, they’re bragging about how they have that, and here it’s just a given.

What You’ll Miss Least: The stress that comes with all of the homework and assignments. But I’m sure that’ll still follow me to college.

Check back tomorrow for the second of our Moorestown Friends senior profiles. Visit our Senior Snapshots page to read more profiles of Moorestown 2012 graduates.