The Impact Of Watauga: Past Watauga Alumni Speak on their Experiences

Amelie Fawson captures a photo with a Canon EOS Rebel T7 camera on Sunday, March 9, 2025 in Tijuana, Mexico. Photo submitted by Amelie Fawson

Ella Hudzik, Staff Writer for the Powderhorn

The town of Boone is a bustling atmosphere for college students originating from places far and wide, with lives just as vivid and complex as our own. Every individual who goes to Appalachian State University and various other colleges in North Carolina has different goals and aspirations. Many of these striving young students come from our very own Watauga High School. 

College freshman Luke Watts, who attends Appalachian State University, is pleasantly surprised with the amount of kindness and support his college has to offer. 

“The people here are really nice,” said Watts. “Everything’s going well, and everyone's very helpful. Every single person you meet, they want to talk to you."

Watts explains that his experiences in high school tended to be very cliquey and hard to form genuine connections with people.

“College is not as cliquey,” said Watts. “Sure, there are cliques, but they’re not as tight, and it’s not as bad. So it’s easier to branch out and meet new people.” 

The key to having a successful school experience is finding a healthy balance between the social and academic aspects of it. While finding your crowd of people is important, attending college should be a way to express individuality and foster academic growth. 

Amelie Fawson, a previous member of the Watauga High School Powderhorn, has now transitioned to the role of audio-visual editor for The Daily Tar Heel (DTH) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

“I went to Mexico from March 8 - March 15 of 2025, as a part of a human rights reporting class that I was taking,” said Fawson. “ We had a few ethics training sessions with journalists from Colombia, we had some calls with our contacts in Mexico beforehand to prepare, and we did some team-building exercises together outside of school with our classmates and professors. Then we went to Mexico.” 

While Fawson was in Mexico, she spent her time interviewing and creating audio stories with locals about their background and personal lives. 

“For one of the audio recordings I did, I recorded an interview with an artist named Javier Salazar Rojas. As a child, he was brought to the United States by his parents. When he was 11 years old, his mother brought him back to Mexico for a relative's birthday, and that is when he realized he didn’t have his legal documentation,” said Fawson. “He had been detained once before, a crime he committed resulted in him being deported back to Mexico. His wife and kids had been left in the United States. He now does advocacy work for deportees in Mexico.” 

Another audio interview that Amelie had done was with a woman who went by the name Claire. Claire is not her real name, but Claire is her alias to protect her identity. 

“We met her at a shelter for women and children in Tijuana. She had to flee Colombia due to economic reasons and gang violence. And had to leave behind her husband and two kids, one of which had epilepsy,” said Fawson. “This was very, very hard for her. The day she had an appointment to cross the border was the day that the border was shut down by President Donald Trump.”

Fawson explained how being a part of Watauga High School’s Powderhorn not only helped her on the road to becoming a better journalist but also a more empathetic version of herself and a better leader. 

“I think journalism has definitely made me more of a confident person. It has really inflamed my appreciation for learning new things. And I think it has definitely grounded me in terms of being exposed to so many different walks of life,” said Fawson. “I think my team at UNC Chapel Hill relies on me as much as I rely on them. Being in a leadership position outside of high school has taught me that you are only as good as the people you need.” 

The goal for college is to find the pathway that you are meant to go down. It’s where growth occurs with knowledge of your choice and where you can grow as a person. Luke Watts shared his perspective on this topic.  

“I’m hoping to know fully what I want to do, because I still really don’t know what that is,” said Watts. “I’m hoping to have a job, and I want to get opportunities to learn how life is going to be from now on.”