Not long after her father was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2019, Allison Hunt, a Brookewood School senior, firmly decided what she wanted to do for the rest of her life. She credits the prayers of many for her dad’s restoration to good health, but also remembers the great care, compassion and dedication of the medical team who helped her dad beat cancer. As a result, she hopes to head to medical school after college, study oncology and become a doctor like those at Georgetown University Medical Center through whose hands God worked a miracle for her family.
This fall, Hunt’s journey toward that goal will begin at the University of Notre Dame, where she will major in biology on a full scholarship.
On May 27, Hunt will graduate from the Brookewood School, a K-12 all-girls Catholic school in Kensington, where she has attended for the past four years. The oldest of seven kids, Hunt, 18, is the daughter of Amy and Jonathan Hunt and grew up in Holy Cross Parish, Garrett Park. She was homeschooled through eighth grade.
Hunt knew she wanted to continue with her secondary education in a small school with a vibrant and close-knit Catholic community, where her faith would blossom and the teachers form a strong bond with their students – all of which she found at Brookewood.
“The teachers for sure were the best part of this school,” she said. “If there was a problem with your homework or personal or spiritual life, they are there to help you,” she said. Especially through her theology classes, she said, her knowledge of her faith increased because the logic of the faith was taught. “It’s not just a blind faith. You can reason through it,” she said. “It really changed the way I look at God and my relationship with Him.” At Brookewood, daily Mass is offered and Hunt said she was grateful for the opportunity to be able to attend Mass several times a week.
One of her fondest memories of her time at Brookewood was playing volleyball, a sport she had thrived at since the age of 11. She helped to bring the sport back to Brookewood and went on to serve as team captain her junior and senior years.
“Allison is one of the top students we have had at Brookewood, especially in Math and Latin. Also, her love of volleyball and her knack for getting others to love it single-handedly revived our volleyball program,” said Richard McPherson, Brookewood’s headmaster. “Her love of sports and her strong faith make Notre Dame the right choice for college. I know she will continue to excel.”
Hunt said she looks forward to the next chapter of her education at Notre Dame. When she visited the campus, she recalls being struck by the expressions of devotion to the faith among the students and the beauty of the campus, with its Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes and the magnificent Basilica of the Sacred Heart, which serves as the university’s chapel. “It’s such a special place,” Hunt said.
Looking back on the past four years, Hunt now sees how both her time at Brookewood and her dad’s health challenges not only strengthened her lifelong Catholic faith, but also set her on the course for her future.
“I always wanted to be a doctor, but when I saw what my dad went through, I knew I wanted to help people in the same situation as my dad. That solidified my decision,” she said.
