For many, high school is a time of growth, challenges, and self-discovery. For Katie Lavoie, one of M-A’s very own history teachers, those years were marked by both proud and difficult moments that continue to influence how she teaches today.
Lavoie, who currently teaches AP U.S. History and Government, spent her high school years in Bloomfield Hills Michigan, just outside of Detroit. She attended Cranbrook Kingswood College Preparatory, a respected private school. “I went to a private school outside of Detroit. Probably the most ‘prestigious’ private school in Michigan,” she said.
Despite the school’s reputation, Lavoie noted she often struggled socially. “I was a very, very quiet kid in high school,” she said. However, Lavoie found a strong sense of community through athletics, specifically on the girls tennis team. “Tennis was a huge part of my life,” Lavoie said. “I played tennis six or seven hours a day in the summer.”
Lavoie’s competitive nature helped her connect with teammates and eventually step into a leadership role. “I was a very, very competitive tennis player, and that became a huge part of my identity—kind of like my voice in high school,” she said.
By her senior year, she was the team captain. “I was a star tennis player on our team. My nickname was ‘hero,’ and so I still have a sweatshirt with the name hero on the back,” Lavoie said.
Still, outside of tennis, finding her place in high school proved challenging. “I struggled to find my people throughout most of high school, and that was really hard for me,” Lavoie said.
Academically, Lavoie described herself as an independent learner. “I was a huge reader. I did a lot of reading and I love, love to write,” she said. However, she lacked confidence in structured academics. “I did a ton of learning on my own and independently, but I wasn’t a super confident learner until I got to college,” she added.
Outside of school and athletics, Lavoie gravitated towards quieter activities. “I used to go see independent and foreign movies a lot at a local independent movie theater, go to a favorite coffee shop to hang out, and go to the Michigan-famous cider mills in the fall,” she said.
Mr. Meehan, Lavoie’s French teacher, had a particularly strong impact on her during high school. “I thought he was a very kind person,” Lavoie said. “I just felt like he was one of the few teachers in my high school experience who actually kind of saw that I was a very capable, very bright student, but just was a quieter personality.”
Her experiences at Cranbrook Kingswood also shaped how she spends her time today. “I’ve been to 43 countries, and that was in large part because of my experiences in high school,” she said. “I realized that I really did live in a little bubble, and [I wanted] to escape that bubble.”
One of Lavoie’s fondest memories of her high school experience came on the tennis court. “When I was a sophomore, we were in the state championship finals. If I won the match, then we would win the state championship for the first time in many years. And if I lost, we wouldn’t win it,” Lavoie explained. “During the state championship match, my teammates were on the sidelines cheering, ‘Go, hero.’”
Despite falling far behind early, Lavoie made a victorious comeback and ended up winning the match. “That was really special, because I loved the girls on the team,” she said. “That was the only time in high school I really felt like I belonged.”
At the same time, high school brought significant challenges. “In middle school and then into ninth and tenth grade, I was bullied, and it was pretty harsh. I remember teachers not doing anything when they observed it,” Lavoie said.
“Outside of the tennis sphere that I had, I remember thinking and feeling like school wasn’t a safe place, and people weren’t going to protect me there,” she said. “I remember dreading going to school.”
However, those roadblocks helped shape her approach as a teacher. “The rest of my life, like I wasn’t going to be a bystander. I was going to make sure that other people feel safe and protected, so that’s like something really important to me as a teacher,” she said.
Now teaching at a much larger high school, Lavoie recognizes that many students face similar struggles. “I think that at a big school like M-A, it’s especially challenging [to fit in],” she said.
Still, she hopes students can find opportunities for connection and community. “There are a lot of spaces at M-A, where students can find belonging, which I think is a great thing that M-A offers,” Lavoie said.
Reflecting on her own high school experience, Lavoie recalled a mix of highs and lows. “I didn’t feel a sense of belonging, except I loved the tennis team, and I really am thankful for the ways that my experiences there shaped the person I was to become,” she said.
Lavoie’s advice to M-A students reflects her own lessons. “Be you, be yourself. Because my dad used to always give me that advice, just to be yourself,” she said. “In a kind of society that pushes us to kind of fit into certain boxes, I think that there’s power in just in being yourself.”
