Avalon senior says he ‘got the best’ from his school experience
The day after his 18th birthday and the day before his last day of high school classes, Vincent McHale walks through the hallways of The Avalon School happily greeting younger students and chatting with teachers. It’s a bittersweet moment when one life chapter ends and another is about to begin, but McHale takes it in stride.
He looks back on his high school years with fond memories of favorite classes and the lively Catholic community he found in the Wheaton all-boys K-12 school, but readily admits it was a bit of an adjustment at first when he started Avalon, during the second semester of his freshman year.
One of nine kids and a parishioner of St. Patrick Parish in Rockville, McHale attended public school during his elementary years. When area schools closed during the pandemic and classes went virtual, his parents decided to homeschool him and his younger sister, Susanna. Soon, the McHale family looked for another educational option for their youngest children. Avalon and its sister K-12 school for girls, Brookwood School, Kensington, were Montgomery County secondary schools that opened for full-time, in-person learning on Sept. 1, 2020, and soon afterward became the perfect fit for the McHale family.
Avalon and Brookwood aren’t schools with a community, but rather “a community that has schools,” said McHale, borrowing a quote from his best friend and former Avalon classmate, Anton Parker, who now serves in the U.S. Marines. “We put each other first. That’s the part of Avalon I love the most,” he said. “I’ll miss it, but it’s time to go on to the next thing.”