Senior Corley Palmer is on Santa Fe’s varsity and state Pom team, a National Honor Society member (NHS), Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership (HOBY) alumni and an Edmond Public Schools Foundation (EPSF) student ambassador.
Palmer has balanced dancing and academics through the years: winning an Outstanding Student Award in her freshman and junior year, the All American Dancer at The Universal Dance Association’s pom camp her junior year and has received a scholarship to an OCU dance summer intensive and scholarships for auditions while at weekend long dance conventions.
Her passion for dancing
Palmer’s love for dance started in first grade, where she began dancing different styles like jazz, tap and hip hop but she mainly focused on ballet. In fifth grade, she joined the competitive team at Dance Phase Studio, competing in four regional competitions and one national competition every year. She competed in the lyrical, contemporary, jazz, musical theater and hip hop categories.
“I fell in love with dance because it gave me a physical outlet for my emotions, and helped with keeping my focus since most of my time is spent sitting at a desk,” Palmer said. “So the physical workout of dance was good for my mental health.”
Sophomore year, Palmer joined the Pom team at Santa Fe, cheering for football games, basketball games and wrestling tournaments. Pom also performs at state and regionals championships, during assemblies and in the last three Double Wolf Dare Week Black Light assemblies.
Her favorite memory with the Pom team was this year’s state championship, where the team performed three full routines and she participated in all of them.
“It was a lot of time, blood, sweat and tears,” Palmer said. “But we ended up scoring really well, so I felt very very proud of myself and the team.”
Her mom, Vanessa Palmer, has supported her in her dancing career- from watching her growing up dancing and then contributing her talent and hard work to the Pom team.
“It has been so fun to watch Corley dance over the years — from pink tutus to poms!,” Mrs. Palmer said. “I will miss it.”
A voice for her peers
The idea of being a student ambassador for EPSF was introduced by her mom, who also teaches at Santa Fe, which has always guided her to appreciate education.
“I decided to do it because I have always cared about getting a good education and wanted to advocate for other people to get the education they deserve as well,” Palmer said.
In fourth grade, Palmer joined her mom at the 2018 teacher walk out for student funding and the teacher pay raises, which taught her the importance of providing available resources for students and teachers and later was one of her motivations to step into the role of student ambassador.
“I wanted to be able to bring attention and help people understand the root causes of the teacher shortage, and how that contributes to ill-prepared teachers in the classroom,” Palmer said. “Therefore kids who haven’t gotten the best education possible.”
As a student ambassador, Palmer educates people about what teachers and students need. On the first Wednesday of each month, Palmer meets with EPSF to talk with speakers from the Edmond community and ask them questions about how they are helping public education in the area. She also volunteers at Heard on Hurd, a festival in Downtown Edmond, to help run the EPS awards ceremonies and raise money for teaching supplies.
Time to unwind
To relax her brain from dancing and academics, Palmer enjoys reading. Being one of her favorite hobbies, her love for reading began after finishing the Harry Potter series in a week during quarantine. In this time, she read a total of 100 books, including “The Hunger Games” and “Twilight” series, which grew her obsession with reading.
On average, Palmer reads 60-70 books a year, some of her favorites at the moment are “House of Hollow,” “Naturals books” and “The Inheritance games” by the local author Jennifer Lynn Barnes.
