“People say that everything you need to know, you learn in kindergarten,” graduating senior Scout Seide said. “But everything I learned, I learned in student theater.”

Knowing all her life she wanted to pursue theater, Seide has been in GW’s student theater program since the first week of her freshman year.

“I found my niche and I found it fast,” Seide said. “I know these are the people that will be there the day my children are born.”

When her mother died during her sophomore year, Seide said she found comfort in her student theater community.

“They held my hand,” Seide said. “They really just knew what I needed. I had more support than I could have ever wanted.”

Relishing the distractions and reassurances theater provides, Seide has made it her obsession, never taking more than a one-month gap between performances.

“I choreographed for the first time for seniors as a freshman, co-directed the freshman showcase as a sophomore, worked with the Generic Theater Company my junior year producing nine shows, and served as Student Theatre Council president this year,” Seide said.

In addition to her work in theater, Seide was a founding member of the Afro-Latin dance group Fuego and has been an active member of GW’s ballet group Balance. She also took part in the Senior Class Gift Committee this year, and participated in two alternative spring break trips to Honduras and Miami.

“I get so much out of GW, it is only fair for me to give back,” she said, noting her busy schedule helped her learn to manage her time and become better organized.

As a leader, Seide has learned to put on a smile and show confidence in her work. While directing “Chicago” this spring, she said she watched everything she had been doing these past four years come together.

“It changed my life. I had actors telling me they had never been in a situation where they could take risks and just play, and to be able to provide that for someone is completely unreal,” Seide said. “That’s the kind of director I want to be.”

While college has been an emotional experience for Seide, she said all she’s learned and the friendships she’s made have been her greatest accomplishments yet.

“As a director, the show is yours, but at the end of the day you give it up to the actors,” Seide said. “This experience, my time I had at GW, is all mine.”

After Commencement, Seide said she will be teaching children’s workshops at the Educational Theater Company in D.C. Her goal is to open her own theater company that will focus on socially and politically aware theater, naming her company “Infinity Squared” in honor of her mother.