LEADING WITH CONFIDENCE

Chandler Hollis ’23

With six academic courses each semester of his senior year on top of basketball, track, and Student Council, Chandler Hollis is determined to capture as much as humanly possible from his EHS experience. And he contributes just as much to the School! Looking to a career in medicine, Chandler has challenged himself, particularly in the sciences, including Bio 2 AP, Physics, Anatomy and Physiology, Marine Biology, and Forensics in the last two years with Psychology AP to boot.

Over the past few years, Chandler has learned to deal with disappointment and to make lemonade from lemons. Sidelined from athletics with a hip injury as a sophomore and junior, he threw himself into student leadership as sophomore class president. When he was elected StuCo veep rather than president as a junior, he chose to serve to the best of his ability and to join the citywide student council as a nova delegate. From his interactions with student leaders throughout Houston, where he still consults, he brings back ideas to EHS StuCo on building spirit and enhancing activities.

This year as student body president, Chandler continues to serve with energy and humility. “It’s a team of us in there,“ he says, and he sees himself as a servant leader in support of his classmates and the underclassmen.

Wayne Jones

Chandler is also a leader in DIA, serving on the steering committee and speaking at the recent Mix and Mingle. DIA is important to him as a place for students to share differing cultures and ideas. He recalls a schoolwide DIA meeting last year on the topic of implicit bias in which students became more aware of their not-always-accurate first impressions. He also serves on the Religion Pillar’s Student/Faculty Spiritual Life Board and is a youth leader at church. “Learning balance has probably been my biggest challenge,” he says. “I’m involved in lots of things and trying to be my best in all of them has been difficult to learn, but I am making progress.”

With preseason basketball underway, he is hoping to be part of another strong showing for the Knights after last year’s SPC championship. Chandler is looking forward as well to track in the spring where he hopes to participate in the 400 and the 4x400 as he tried as a freshman but was waylaid by the Covid closing.

Chandler’s teachers are big fans. Says Robin Owens, his calculus teacher: “Chandler has created Chandler’s Corner on the classroom whiteboard where he lists fun facts and leaves notes for students to read, including ‘Sharks have been on earth longer than trees.’” His Biology 1 Honors and Forensics teacher Karen Foster remembers that Chandler remained engaged and diligent during the three months in the spring of his freshman year when we were online for Covid. “He made the best of it,” she remembers.

And his advisor John Flanagan remembers sitting in the theater during the Black History Month presentation during Chandler’s freshman year and listening to Chandler “play a major role as an underclassman. He had not said a word about it, and there he was leading with confidence.”

Director of Diversity, Community, and Inclusion Wayne Jones describes Chandler as a student who always tries to be his best self. He is diligent, dependable, and unselfish, placing others above himself while juggling many responsibilities. Scholar, athlete, leader, advocate, and friend, this young man represents the best of Episcopal High School!

— Nancy Laufe Eisenberg