Lely High School graduate Pilar Forrest excels in and out of the classroom

Editor’s note: This is one in a series of Naples Daily News stories on Graduates of Distinction, who are selected by staff at the high school. 

About three or four times a month, Pilar Forrest is called to the principal's office at Lely High School in East Naples.

However, Forrest, an 18-year-old senior, is not in trouble.

"I always get called down to the office," Forrest said. "I'm always like, 'What did I do?' But every single time it's been because they needed help with something."

Forrest, who will be headed to Yale University on a full scholarship in the fall, is summoned because she helps administrators and educators with anything from running the school website to ironing out the testing schedule for Advanced Placement students.

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For Ellen Keegan, the Lely High School principal, picking Forrest as the graduate of distinction was a no-brainer.

"She was really the first student that came to mind," Keegan said. "Not only her academics set her aside. She also excels in service, in leadership. She's involved in our student government. ... She's just this all-around, excellent student."

As the senior class president, Forrest is able to relay any issues her classmates may have to administrators. As a webmaster for the school's website, she not only worked on "deep cleaning" the site and developing pages for it, she helped keep students posted when disaster struck Southwest Florida last year.

"Hurricane Irma was definitely one of those urgent times where I was putting a lot of information that students need to keep up with (on the website)," Forrest said.

"Like when some of our students need access to free food and resources that they couldn't get from the supermarkets, we had it on hand for them and my job was to make sure everybody knew that."

Her digital design teacher asked her early in her senior year if she was interested in becoming a webmaster, and Forrest has been working with widgets and code ever since.

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But her interest in the digital sphere started much earlier.

"When I was in like fifth grade I was making blogs and AI chat ware," Forrest said, referring to the abbreviation for artificial intelligence.

Computers and tech still appeal to Forrest, but her professional pursuits have since developed.

She plans to double major in film and art history at Yale. The museum buff hopes to transform the teaching tools available to institutions like the Smithsonian and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

Forrest said she could envision herself doing anything from providing them with educational documentaries to working in museum curation.

"My ultimate goal is being able to help others learn in a way that is more immersive and alternative and captivating," Forrest said. "Sure, it's one thing to sit down and read a textbook, but I feel like seeing is a different type of learning. And a lot of people are visual learners."

Earlier in her high school career, Forrest couldn't picture herself going to an Ivy League school like Yale. She wasn't planning on becoming a doctor or a lawyer, so why apply to a school like that, she asked herself.

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But after winning the Yale Book Award and taking a closer look at all the notable alumni the college had churned out, Forrest soon realized the university is a perfect fit.

"I noticed that there was a stream of creators and just the artistic hemisphere for technology as well," she said. "And that's something that stood out to me."

Now, with her high school graduation nearing, Forrest looks forward to joining a campus environment where the student body is as diverse as her interests.

"Everybody just does things that don't fit the archetype that you've already put them in," she said, recalling her visit to Yale.

"Like every single student: 'Hi, I'm an econ major. I do tap dancing and I'm in the magic club.' Like crazy things like that. Nobody was stagnant. Everyone did everything."