We’re excited to introduce you to Riley Chenard ’19. At Roycemore, Riley found a second home and community that supported him in a variety of endeavors. He graduated from Colby College this year with a B.A. in Global Studies and a concentration in International Relations, but not before taking some time to fill us in on his time in college and some of the lessons he learned!

Riley’s favorite thing about Roycemore was that it gave him a place to try everything. After moving to Chicago from Washington D.C. at age 11, he was scared to try new things but found community and a sense of belonging within Roycemore’s walls. “Roycemore’s size made it easy to be personable and interact with my teachers in a non-classroom setting,” he says, affirming how that skill has continued to serve him in college and beyond. His newfound confidence in interactions with teachers led him to participate in Palio, scholastic bowl, soccer, volleyball, student government, cross country, and more! Some of his fondest memories at Roycemore include working on the Yearbook, which provided him with a chance to cement his legacy at Roycemore, and working on the theatre productions with Ms. Rivera, which taught him how to present himself in front of a large group of people. 

After graduating from Roycemore, Riley matriculated to Colby College, where he began to focus deeply on international relations after discovering his interest at Roycemore. He spent his first semester abroad as a part of Colby’s Global Entry Program, where he had “Independence and adulthood thrust upon him.” The choice to enter college in this way was a “risk,” but he took it and cemented his love of learning about new places in the process. Riley went on to spend his junior year of college abroad in Switzerland, interning for a global human rights organization. His days involved working five hundred feet from the United Nations building, where he felt out of his element but thrived in that uncertainty. He believes that his time at Roycemore gave him “The tools to express myself, advocate for myself, and exist in a real-world situation,” all of which proved invaluable during this internship. 

January Short Term (JST) provided Riley with yet another opportunity to collaborate with his peers and try something new. After spending his first few JSTs traveling to Italy and Greece and the Galapagos Islands, fulfilling his desire for learning about new cultures, he chose to do a group project on developing video games with a few classmates. This project lead him to find both a passion for developing video games and a team of collaborators with whom he would work to publish an indie game: To Your Stations! The team of Roycemore alumni are now in the process of developing another game, and Riley says that this company, born from Roycemore’s signature experiential learning program, has been a great way to stay connected with his friends and continue to pursue a passion.

Above all, Riley is interested in community. Whether this means continuing to pursue his interest in international relations and working as an advocate in international law for people who exist without borders, as he plans to do in law school, or staying connected with his high school friends and teachers, he’s grateful for the community-building skills that Roycemore brought him. He wants our current students to remember the importance of community too, imploring them not to be afraid of the dependence that comes with forming deep connections. “Pay attention to who you surround yourself with, and make sure it’s people you can depend on” is his best advice for current Roycemore students. How fitting it is that this lesson, which he learned at Roycemore, is what he chooses to pass on.