Weeks away from the conclusion of his high school career, Zaman Alidina looks back on his early years of schooling and enumerates the highlights. “I started Green Hedges in first grade,” he says, “and was amazed that we had to do a play. I enjoyed watching the other grades each perform during the year. When it was our turn, I played the fox in Pinocchio! I don’t remember, but I don’t think it was that hard to memorize the lines.” Another highlight of his early years was a Grade 3 class field trip to the Baltimore Aquarium followed by an overnight at the Baltimore Science Center. In subsequent years, the variety of experiences at Green Hedges is what seems most outstanding to him. Reminiscing, he says, “I enjoyed the Science Fair, and I had a great time participating in the band program including the jazz band. I played the trumpet. Going on band trips was especially memorable.”

Since graduating from Green Hedges, Zaman has been attending Flint Hill School, where he cites his AP History as among the most interesting of his classes. “Green Hedges prepared me well for high school,” he says, and, although his interest in math and science blossomed at Green Hedges and continued at Flint Hill, he is keeping his options for college studies wide open. “Next year I’ll be attending Bowdoin College in Maine,” he says, “and I am planning to take a variety of courses so I can find out which ones are of special interest to me. I want to explore many possibilities.” Part of the reason he chose Bowdoin, he says, is that he enjoyed the small classes and sense of community at Green Hedges, and hopes to replicate that experience in his higher education.

Zaman’s favorite activities at Flint Hill have included his extra-curricular participation in two Special Olympics events hosted at the school, soccer and track. Equally inspiring and challenging has been being part of the Flint Hill team, the Huskies, at a fundraising event supporting the American Cancer Society at Relay For Life, an event at George Mason University. Zaman explains, “We stayed up all night and collected quite a bit of money. The motto was, ‘cancer never sleeps,’ and neither did we!”

With some of his friends from Green Hedges now classmates at Flint Hill, Zaman finds it easy to stay in touch with his former school. In fact, he is on the GHS campus regularly, because twice a week he joins the car pool line to pick up his younger twin siblings. Summing up his long relationship with Green Hedges from the perspective of now, Zaman says, “Kids are exposed to many things at Green Hedges. It can inspire many interests.”