“It’s like a continuation of the Licher legacy,” said Arabella Licher, Sedona Red Rock High School’s 2024 class valedictorian, when discussing the accolade.
Her sister Sophia Licher had previously been valedictorian for the class of 2014.
“It was leading up to this thing, ‘Wouldn’t it be funny if I also got valedictorian?’ and I was surprised when they called me down, and I happened to get it as well.”
Born and raised in Sedona, Licher cane to SRRHS after eight years at the Desert Star Community School, a Waldorf-based charter school in Cornville, and has been a member of the varsity track and field team all four years of high school. She is also the current vice president of the school’s National Honor Society chapter.
“I feel very honored and special that I get to represent kind of the accumulation of all of the work that all of my classmates have put in because I wouldn’t be here without any of them,” Licher said. “We have come to a place where our best potential can shine because of each other. So I feel like the title doesn’t entirely belong to only me but it belongs to everybody here, but I’m just very honored that I get to represent that group.”
Licher plans to enroll at Northern Arizona University in the fall and has applied for its interdisciplinary global program, which enables students to graduate with two degrees in five years by combining a business degree or a STEM degree with a language course.
“I’m planning on doing business and marketing,” Licher said. “I was thinking about doing Japanese because I’ve already been there in the past. It was a phenomenal experience. It was absolutely eye-opening. Everything is so beautiful over there. I especially really loved exploring the countryside, so I think it’d be amazing to utilize that opportunity to be able to go over there and explore more of that [country].”
Licher cited SRRHS math teacher Jim Vogler and English teacher Karyl Goldsmith as being her most influential educators during her time in high school.
“Goldsmith has prepared me more for furthering my education than any teacher has. I’ve learned how to craft research papers, analyze a specific text, which I [had] never been able to do before,” Licher said. “I never considered myself good at math and even struggled at it first through eighth grade. But after being a student in [Vogler’s] class, it started to click for me, and my junior year was the first time that I had him, but I never had gotten 100% on math [tests] … And I think that year I got around seven and then felt confident enough that I’m taking AP Calculus. If you had told eighth-grade me that I’d be taking AP Calculus my senior year, I would have not believed it, but he made that achievable for me.”
“Arabella is the epitome of academic scholarship, creativity, problem-solving and also mixed with grace, compassion and kindness,” Goldsmith stated in a recent email.
This year, Licher was one of the co-captains of the track and field team, which involved responsibility for leading warmups and mentoring underclassmen.
“Arabella has always been one of my hardest-working girls and I know she applies that to school,” Head Coach Sean Eicher said. “She’s a go-getter. I remember one practice where everyone was exhausted, and [Licher] was exhausted too. But she wanted to keep getting better. That’s always been her mentality since I’ve coached her. And she’s said, ‘Coach, can I do one more?’ And I think she ended up going two more because she just wanted to see how hard she could push her body and I know that’s what she’s going to do in life.”
Licher’s drive has also led her to take the school record for the triple jump, reaching 34 feet and 3/4 of an inch.
“I broke my previous record by a little bit over two feet in one home meet, and I was beyond ecstatic,” Licher said. “I like to look at my past records in triple jump because you can see my slow progression … [At the] state meet I did not do as well as I was hoping and I actually injured my foot on one of my jumps, so it was a bit unfortunate, but I am so very happy that throughout my senior year, I was able to get up over that 34-foot mark.”
Another way that Licher gets where she wants to go is atop her Yamaha YZF-R3 motorcycle.
“I bought it outright with everything that I’ve earned from working,” Licher said. “I hosted [at] a restaurant. So this summer, I will have been there for three years … [Riding] has always been in the back of my mind and I realized around halfway through this year, ‘It’s now or never.’ So I just went for it and did the class down in Phoenix, and a few days afterwards bought my first motorcycle and I’ve been doing great on it.”
Noting that living in Sedona makes it easy to get inspired, Licher sketches and sews as hobbies.
“I have always been a painter or sketching, and in the past few years I have got into creative writing,” Licher said. “I love doing both nature pieces and also sketches of different fashion pieces. I’ve also recently gotten to that [by] making my own clothes. I’ve been starting by doing sketches of different patterns that I have and then making my own patterns and then going up and cutting them out and then creating solely based off of whatever I’ve imagined.”
She described her clothing creations as a match between mainstream and alternative.
“I did this one piece where it was a button-up but it was a very flowy top, and then I did a corset bottom with lace in the back,” Licher said. “So very elevated, but also simplistic enough that you could wear it out regularly.”
“I’m wanting to talk about how ironic time has been,” Licher said of her valedictory. “Because it’s been a bit of you’re just trying to get through the day. But now that we’re finally here, I find myself wishing that I had more time … And then also voice how proud I am to be a part of the class of 2024. We are a unique group of individuals that this school won’t forget, because every single student here … deserves just as much as anybody else to be on that stage.”
The SRRHS class of 2024’s graduation ceremony is scheduled to take place at the school field on Wednesday, May 22, at 6 p.m.
