South Royalton
Afterward, standing in the crowd of graduates, families and friends, Dakin said she felt good about her accomplishment.
In the past 10 months, the 18-year-old South Royalton resident had checked off a list of school-related goals: completing an English requirement, volunteering to help second-graders with reading and math, and, as part of the high school’s community-based learning program, helping out several days a week at two local horse farms — Highland Farm in Pomfret, and, most recently, Round Robin Farm in South Royalton.
The experience of “just doing what I like” helped cement her intention to work with horses, said Dakin, whose love for the animals took hold before she could walk. In a few months she’ll take the next step toward her dream job when she heads off to an equestrian college in West Virginia.
Mary Waterman, educator and grants facilitator for the community-based learning program, said Dakin did well.
The program is designed for students to make career discoveries, build professional contacts, set personal learning goals and complete a project they can build upon professionally, Waterman said in an email. “Mackenzie accomplished goals in all four areas!”
Dakin’s senior year held some challenges.
“I don’t like presentations,” so the talks required for English class were “a little hard,” she said during an interview at her family’s hillside home.
Yet over time, speaking in front of her classmates and teacher became easier, she said. “I didn’t care about what people thought.”
Her teachers also took note of her growth.
Initially, Dakin was timid about saying what she was thinking or discussing what was happening, Waterman said, but her communication skills improved over the year.
“There is a lot of independence in (community-based learning); she did a great job documenting what was needed and proactively contacting me when she was uncertain or when something happened unexpectedly.”
June Naclerio, a special education teacher who worked with Dakin for four years, said she has “developed into a young lady who isn’t afraid to be a self advocate.
“She has become more vocal and independent,” Naclerio said in an email.
Her increasing ability to speak up may have been normal maturity, said her father, Patrick Dakin, but a lot of it may be a result of the support she received from Naclerio, who took the time to understand her.
“She was able to talk bluntly with Mackenzie and get her to do things,” persuasion that, coming from a parent, might have been annoying, he said.
And spending all of that time working at the farm did allow Mackenzie to feel more more comfortable speaking out.
A recent exhibit of Dakin’s photographs at South Royalton Market this spring was an unexpected, but welcome surprise.
An avid horse photographer, Dakin had said she’d eventually like to sell some of her pictures, so she and Waterman researched marketing and display ideas. In the process, they met with the market’s education and outreach coordinator, which led to an offer for Dakin to exhibit her work there for a month, Waterman said.
On Mother’s Day, Dakin, her mother, Sara Dakin, and Dakin’s longtime riding teacher, Carrie Maynard, hung the show on a wall in the cafe area. As they worked, customers and employees stopped by to offer layout suggestions and compliment Dakin on her photographs.
The three women toiled for nearly two hours, mulling over where to place each of the 22 framed pictures, mostly of horses.
“This is why I asked her to lay them onto the floor (in advance),” Maynard said, smiling. “How many times did I ask you to lay them out?”
“You would have made us redo them” anyway, Sara Dakin quipped.
The younger Dakin simply grinned.
Finally, they stepped back for a final look. It felt good to be done with hanging the exhibit, which looked “pretty much” as she had imagined, Dakin said.
Another surprise would follow; she recently sold one of the pictures to a Boston man who had shopped at the store.
Selling her work “was cool,” said Dakin, who also had photographs in a student exhibit at Royalton Memorial Library this spring.
Looking ahead, Dakin plans to continue taking pictures. Her schedule for the next few months includes a family vacation, riding lessons with Maynard, and possibly looking for a summer job. Of course there will also be at least one shopping trip — her list includes a computer and some “tack stuff” she needs for college. And she also intends to jump a certain hurdle.
Although Dakin has her driver’s permit and has been practicing behind the wheel, she didn’t want to get her license during the school year, she said. However, living on a dirt road several miles from the center of town has become a motivator.
Without a license, she misses out on “last-minute stuff,” such as activities with friends or a chance to go to the barn, Dakin said.
Though it’s meant more time behind the wheel for her, Dakin’s mother hasn’t minded the wait.
“I’m OK with not having her driving,” Sara Dakin said in a telephone interview last month. “She’ll be asking for my car.”
In September, Dakin will journey to Meredith Manor International Equestrian College for a short orientation before starting classes.
When it came time to look for schools, Dakin did an online search for horse colleges. Of those she found, none were quite like Meredith Manor, she said.
The school offers programs for students planning to work in the horse industry as riders, trainers, or instructors; managers, teachers, equine massage therapists or leatherworkers; or farriers, according to its website. And the college uses a primarily hands-on, skill-based approach, which appeals to Dakin, who has been diagnosed with inattentive type ADHD and sometimes finds herself missing information during traditional classes.
Dakin isn’t sure which program she’ll choose, although she can imagine herself working in a barn after she graduates.
And like many students facing their first year away from home, she’s a little nervous about “going somewhere by myself for so long,” said Dakin, the second of four children. But after living her first 18 years in one state, she’s also looking forward to it.
“It’s different,” she said.
Aimee Caruso can be reached at acaruso@vnews.com or 603-727-3210.