Senior Spotlight: Mary Virginia Bohner
Mary Virginia Bohner has never been someone who does things halfway. The daughter of Laura and Doug Bohner and granddaughter of Sherry Corden, she's wrapping up her time at West High School as an International Baccalaureate Diploma Candidate, and if her friends had to sum her up in three words, they'd say hardworking, determined, and ambitious.
This fall, Mary Virginia will head to the University of South Carolina Honors College to study Political Science and Dance, where she'll also perform with The Betsy Blackmon Dance Company. It's a path that fits someone who says the stage is where she feels most like herself.
Outside of the spotlight, she's easy to find at a coffee shop with a book, out on a walk with friends, or sharing dinner with her family. She loves to dance, read, and run, and she loves long drives around Knoxville.
At school, she loved organic chemistry, which speaks to a curiosity that doesn't stop at the edges of her interests. She worked hard at everything she set her mind to, a quality her family noticed and admired most, and becoming a better dancer is something she has pursued with that same devotion.
Her mom has been a steady voice through the transition ahead. "She has given me amazing advice on how to approach moving away to college," Mary Virginia shares. That kind of grounding has meant a lot during a season that comes with its fair share of uncertainty.
Faith has been another anchor. Mary Virginia has been showing up to Wednesday morning Bible studies with friends before school, and she says starting the day with that fellowship has brought her real joy. Her faith shapes not just how she copes, but how she sees. When she reads about Jesus, what strikes her most is the way he loves people, not their faults. "The people in the Bible that have fallen the farthest from God are the people that Jesus fights for the hardest," she reflects.
That perspective carries into how she holds her own anxieties about the next chapter. "Even when I am scared or disappointed by what is happening in my life, I know that every joy or struggle I face was placed there for a reason," she says. It's a faith that doesn't pretend life is easy, it just trusts that there's something larger at work.
From Youth Sunday preparations to a memorable trip to the Pittengers' lake house, her church community has been an important part of her story. And as she steps toward South Carolina, the stage, and whatever comes next, Mary Virginia Bohner is moving forward with both intention and faith.
As you begin this next chapter, know that you go with the love, encouragement, and prayers of your church family. Congratulations, Mary Virginia!