Dons' Summer Highlights - Alexandria "Xani" Peña '24 | News

June 20th 2023

This summer, our Dons are blessed with unique opportunities to explore their interests through internships, faith opportunities, service, and more! We are excited to highlight some of our Dons’ summer experiences over the next couple of months.

☀️Dons’ Summer Highlights☀️ Over the summer, Alexandria “Xani” Peña ‘24 is interning with the world-renowned interior designer Mark D. Sikes as part of his creative team. She has been working on designing and sketching trims for new coastal, country and city collections. In addition, she is helping brainstorm design ideas for the Blair House in Washington, D.C. for the president. Xani credits her CCHS art classes, and specifically the mentorship of Mrs. Rybicki, with helping prepare her for this opportunity. She hopes to either study architecture or business and is excited to develop skills in art, design and teamwork through this internship!

Xani shares, “CCHS has helped prepare me for this experience as it has given me the opportunity to develop my skills as an artist. I took art all three years thus far, and was blessed to have Mrs. Rybicki as my teacher and mentor the last two years. She taught me how to use new mediums and utilize my technical abilities more creatively, which was vital coming into this internship. Additionally, we had one project where we had to use two-point perspective to construct a modern house, and it was here that I discovered a passion for architecture. I wanted to pursue this interest, and that’s what inspired me to do this interior design internship.”

At Cathedral Catholic, Xani is very involved as an athlete on the Varsity Cross Country (she will be a captain of this year), Soccer and Track and Field teams. She is also an Ambassador, an Options Program mentor, an officer in both the National Honor Society and the California Scholarship Federation and a member of the National English Honor Society, National Art Honor Society and National Math Honor Society.