Kendra Handler

I attended Gulf Stream School for nine years.


Family
My brother, Aaron, went to Gulf Stream for five years and graduated with the Class of 2001. My parents, Deb and Larry Handler, taught at Gulf Stream for 40 and 35 years, respectively.

How did your years at GSS benefit you in all of your post-graduate experiences and help make you who you are today?
Gulf Stream absolutely prepared me academically for high school, but more so helped with my time management. With seven classes a day, sports in the afternoon, and gymnastics after school, I had to be purposeful with my time to get all my work done. This was a huge part of why I was successful in high school and college with my academics and extracurriculars.

Who was your favorite teacher(s) and/or what was your favorite subject(s)?
It is hard to pick a favorite teacher since I grew up with many of them, and they were more like family than teachers. Ms. Hallowell was our eighth-grade homeroom teacher and English teacher. She made English fun by playing Scrabble and acting out books. I loved learning about baseball in Mr. Winans’ class and riding on his bongo board. One of my favorite memories from Mrs. Bogert’s class was learning the Mighty Mitochondria song that I still know 15 years later. Mr. Cook has been in my life since I was born, but I will never forget when we were kayaking through the Everglades talking about Twilight. And I guess I’ll put my parents on the list, too!

Any special experiences, memories or quotes?
All the overnight field trips were really fun, but Canada was my favorite because we got to do so many new things. In eighth grade, we won the first volleyball championship for Gulf Stream. Field Day was always the most exciting day of the year. Go White! One of my funniest memories was when I tripped down the stairs after receiving an award on Awards Day.