Syd Johnsen
Hi and welcome to my website! I’m Syd Johnsen and I attended both Freestyle Academy and Los Altos High. There is no doubt that Freestyle has so far been one of the best experiences of my life. The Design, Digital Media, and English classes have all pushed me to be more creative than I ever thought I could be. In each class, I feel comfortable and free to be who I am as a person and as an artist. The Freestyle community has become a second family to me, and I feel supported by each and every person within it. Through this, I have also developed more true friendships than I ever would have imagined with both graduated Freestyle students and the new junior class. Although each individual student here applied for a different reason, I feel that we all share the same passion and drive for art. I am inspired by sitting in class everyday listening and contributing to discussions or activities held by my peers and teachers. The work that I do at Freestyle is by far the most rewarding because I am challenged daily. Freestyle has given me a new love for school. I never used to be excited about going to school and learning, Freestyle was different. The past two years, Freestyle has been the highlight of my days and served as such a family to me. Freestyle is such an extremely passionate community where everyone supported each other no matter what. I have made some of my closest friends through Freestyle and i’m so grateful for that. In terms of education, Freestyle has given me such a solid base for me to feel comfortable tackling any job or major in the arts or english department. Leaving Freestyle I can genuinely say that I feel confident moving on with my life because I have so many tools in both arts and communication to succeed.
Apart from school, my favorite thing to do is to spend time with my closest friends and family. I have two very supportive parents, two really energetic, loving little brothers, and two labs whom I love very much. Another big part of my life has been swimming. I have been swimming with the same team since I was four years old. As I have gotten older, I’ve been given the opportunity to coach the younger kids on the swim team. Working with the little kids had always made me really happy and I absolutely love my job! I work as swim coach as a paid job and volunteer position at a separate pool. Some of my favorite things to do for fun is going to the beach, pool, walks and hikes with my dogs, or spur the moment outings and drives with my friends.
I am now attending University of Oregon studying Art and Technology and Graphic Design.