While CHS (Camas High School) offers several programs that allow students to showcase talents, many typically are left out of the spotlight. Students Liam Hillyard, Jenna Dixon, and Samuel Stark contain talents each uniquely important to them.

Sophomore Liam Hillyard has been recognized for his special talent as a guitarist. His passion for guitar began in 6th grade after an injury to the leg.

“My parents told me I need to play a sport and instrument, I kind of lost interest but then I broke my leg and got really hooked on guitar,” said Hillyard.

After gaining years of experience, he eventually began teaching guitar lessons about two years ago.

“I teach just a couple of kids around the neighborhood, and some family friends,” said Hillyard. 

However, he claims he is in it for interest rather than the money,

“It’s no big serious thing, and I make almost no money,” said Hillyard.

Last year, Liam even began a band with several other students from CHS who go by the name “Reach.” 

“Last year for the talent show I just threw together a bunch of people, we performed and did pretty good considering we practiced just once before going on stage,” said Hillyard. 

Ever since last year’s talent show performance, the band has continued working together practicing about once a week.

After the band has gained and lost members, they now have received gigs from local coffee shops and even the Portland Yacht Club as their next upcoming gig.

However, Liam plans to keep guitar as a hobby rather than pursue it as a career.

“I think I’m just gonna keep it as a side gig… Something that’s weird or unique about me,” said Hillyard.

Jenna Dixon, currently a senior at CHS, has recently found a great passion for all subjects regarding the fashion industry. 

Her interest in fashion began during quarantine as she had begun to recognize that clothing stores simply didn’t have what she was looking for.

“I couldn’t find what I was looking for by shopping so my mom suggested I join Cascadia Tech fashion design,” said Dixon.

Since then, she has recognized the major impact that fashion has had on her life and character development.

“It has been the core foundation for myself, and is something I’m very attached to… It has given me something to stand back on,” said Dixon.

However, Dixon has not always found herself an artistic individual.

“I was never a kid who was passionate about art,” said Dixon.

She claims her passion truly sparked after joining the Cascadia Tech Academy.

 “I definitely found passion after taking my fashion class at Cascadia. By working with a team, class, and a teacher who had done the career showed me working in this industry is possible,” said Dixon.

Dixon takes inspiration in her style from several different areas.

“I take my inspiration a lot from the ’90s and Europe. I really like Copenhagen style and simplicity,” said Dixon.

Dixon claims that her favorite aspect of fashion is the ability to style and put together different outfits.

“My favorite part of fashion would be the styling. I love having created pieces, styling them together, and trying several different ways to work with an item,” said Dixon.

Dixon now plans to study design in college and pursue a career in the fashion industry.

Beginning just last year, CHS senior Samuel Stark found a great new interest in pottery through the ceramics program provided through CHS.

“I started ceramics at the beginning of last year, so the 2021-2022 school year,” said Stark.

Stark joined the class not knowing how large of a passion he would grow for the subject. However, he recalls that this passion did not start immediately.

“I would say my passion started after I took time to learn on the wheel. It’s kind of like snowboarding, you get frustrated a lot in the beginning, but once you get over the curve, it gets a lot better from there,” said Stark.

Stark states that his favorite part of pottery is the flow.

“It’s almost like a wavelength. You just ride it through the piece,” said Stark.

Though he doesn’t necessarily find inspiration from his pieces, he prefers to let the piece come along as he goes.

“I test a lot of colors and forms, not necessarily things that inspire me, but things that I try and like,” said Stark.

Stark’s proudest piece was one of his most recent projects.

“My proudest piece was a tea bowl I made very recently. My teacher Mr. King was showing us a lifestyle of wabi-sabi which I incorporated into my piece,” said Stark.

His talent landed him a spot at the Oregon Ceramic Convention in May of last year.

“It was very diverse, lots of different artists and pieces that they made,” said Stark.

Stark now takes pride in creating several pieces that will be modeled on a self-created website. However, he simply hopes to keep pottery as a hobby rather than a career.