Superintendent Spotlight: Arielle Seid

Warwick Valley High School senior Arielle Seid has spent her high school years building community. Through more than 200 hours of service, leadership roles with the Youth Advisory Board and community center, years in orchestra and Wire Choir, and the Girls Circle mentoring program she founded for younger girls, Arielle has built her high school experience around helping people feel connected and supported.

Just a few weeks ago, those efforts earned her the Warwick Cares Starfish Award, given in recognition of someone who quietly makes a difference in the lives of others.

“Every little thing that you do makes a difference in the big picture,” she said. “You could say one thing and change someone’s life. So my role could be so much bigger than that.”

When Arielle and her family moved to Warwick in eighth grade, just after COVID, finding her footing wasn’t easy.

Founding Girls Circle

“I definitely struggled to find my way and make friends,” she said, discussing the origins of the Girls Circle program she founded. “[That] originally came from me trying to find my own community and find my own people.”

Arielle imagined a program that would give younger girls the safe, supportive space she’d once gone looking for herself. Her main inspiration was her younger sister, Evalie. Arielle brought her idea to the community center, where she met mentor Kristine Wilson. Together, they launched Girls Circle with three eight-week sessions, welcoming new groups of girls each time. Activities ranged from skits and dancing to team-building exercises, but her favorite moments came from watching participants grow more comfortable being themselves.

A commitment to service and leadership

Outside of Girls Circle, Arielle’s high school years have been filled with service, leadership, and the arts. She has logged more than 200 community service hours, earned a first-place Healthy Living Award from the Orange County Youth Bureau, won a substance-abuse essay competition, participated in the Youth Advisory Board and the community center youth task force, and performed in the chamber orchestra and the Wire Choir, including a trip to Carnegie Hall. She also competed in track and field, specializing in the 100- and 200-meter sprints.

Arielle also recently completed her National Honor Society Pillar Project, which she co-led with fellow Class of 2026 members Grace Cornelius and Juely Duran. The three students partnered with teacher Amanda Kowalczyk’s first-grade class at Park Avenue on a project to honor local firefighters. Arielle and her NHS partners helped the students create cards for local first responders, while also teaching them about the role firefighters play in serving the community.

Helping a new mother inspires an interest in medicine

Arielle’s love of community and her belief that even the smallest gestures can have outsized impacts, has also affected her decision to pursue a career in medicine. As a sophomore, she weighed possible college and career paths, specifically law versus medicine, but eventually saw a sign she didn’t know she was looking for while job shadowing healthcare professionals. Her encounter with a labor and delivery doctor at the hospital where her twin cousins were born piqued her interest in medicine and time spent at St. Luke’s in Newburgh and Garnet Health in Middletown only reinforced her feeling that a career in medicine was “meant to be” for her.

One moment in particular that touched her was helping a first-time mother dress her newborn and make a birth announcement sign.

“She’d never met me before. It just meant so much to her in that moment. Those are the moments I value the most,” she said. “My passion comes from compassion for people and wanting to be there when people need help. And helping bring new life into the world — that’s such a vulnerable and amazing thing to be part of.”

In the fall, Arielle will attend the University at Buffalo to study biology on the pre-med track. As for Girls Circle, she hopes its future stays in the family, with Evalie planning to continue the program’s mission.

“She’ll continue my little legacy,” Arielle said. “I think being empowering and helping people younger than me is something I’ll carry my whole life.”