Arete Prep Sisters Competing on National and International Platforms

Two sisters, Stella and Graciana Guglielmino, at Arete Prep are excelling in some extraordinary activities outside of the classroom, juggling busy schedules and international travel while still flourishing academically at their academy. They prove that the virtues they have learned at Great Hearts have shown them they have the capacity to do great things.

Stella, a junior, is part of an acrobatic gymnastics (acro) team and has represented the United States while competing internationally, while her sister, Graciana, a freshman, is making a name for herself in the competitive world of Irish Dance.

Stella’s passion for acro began back in the third grade. “All I remember is seeing it in the gym that I go to now and I was like, ‘Wow, this is so cool. I really want to do what these girls are doing,’” she recalled. “I’m in a trio and I’m the base of my trio and we do lots of competitions… We did a couple of international meets the last couple of months.” With her team she has recently traveled to compete in Puerto Rico and the United Kingdom.

This high level of competition demands a great deal of effort as well as a sacrifice of time. “I normally have practice around 17 to 20 hours a week,” Stella explained. “So, my daily schedule looks like: wake up, go to school, go to practice, do my homework, and go to bed. And then I just repeat that every day. But I wouldn’t want to do anything else because I love acro!”

Stella has already verbally committed to the University of Oregon to compete on the Ducks’ Acrobatics and Tumbling Team.

Younger sister Graciana is equally involved in her chosen non-traditional sport. “I do Irish dancing and it’s not very common, but it’s kind of like Lord of the Dance or River Dance,” she explained. “I do practice about four times a week and we do competitions about once a month.” These competitions require travel for Graciana as well, who has competed in states all across the country. She recently qualified for the Irish Dance World Championships in Chicago this summer.

“I really enjoy dancing with my friends. We’ve been doing it for so long, so I know a lot of people that do it now,” shared Graciana. “We have a really good community.”

What makes their story especially impressive is how they balance their rigorous training schedules with the demands of a Great Hearts education, and that they do so with great discipline and focus. “Arete has taught me a lot about time management. Sometimes there will be weekends where we have competitions for our separate sports and they’re in different locations, so our mom will have to go with one of us and our dad will have to go with the other,” Stella explained. “One of the most valuable things that Arete has taught me is how to be able to balance everything that you’re given.”

Graciana credits the virtue of perseverance for her achievements. “In dance, you have a dream that you want to work towards, and you can’t ever give up because then you might fall back and you have to restart again,” she shared.

Perseverance is one of the nine Core Virtues taught at Great Hearts. Engaging with our rich curriculum requires perseverance from our students on a daily basis. Students are continually asked to read longer and longer books. The amount students are expected to write at one sitting gradually increases as well. In P.E., students must work hard to sustain their effort, run farther, beat a personal best. Sometimes even a single word problem in Singapore Math may demand much patience, diligence, and perseverance on the part of a scholar.

But we believe it is good for young people to do hard things, and it is good for them to experience natural challenges and setbacks along the way, and to overcome them. That is apparent in the lives of the Guglielmino sisters, who have overcome challenging schedules and highly competitive platforms, while still investing in their futures as flourishing human beings with a classical education. We can’t wait to see the great things that are in store for these two young women.

Do you have a story or know of one that you would like to see featured at Great Hearts? Please contact jmoore@greatheartsamerica.org.

Submit a student application to a Great Hearts Academy by visiting: https://www.greatheartsamerica.org/enroll/.