Like many high school students, it took time for senior Anneliese Toepper to find her passion.

She doesn’t consider herself the best listener in a lecture-based class, so school wasn’t always easy.

But she had always enjoyed taking art classes.

“I like to do mixed-media art on canvas with collages,” she said. “I can paint, but I’m not the best drawer, so a lot of my stuff is abstract. But I love painting.”

It was no surprise, then, that when Toepper enrolled in the aesthetics program at West Sound Tech, she immediately excelled.

West Sound Tech in Bremerton is a cooperative education center that gives high school students the opportunity to take technical education classes as part of their public educational classes, at no cost to the student.

Toepper first learned about West Sound Tech when her friend asked her to be a model for a project in one of her aesthetics classes.

Hearing how her friend had such a good experience, Toepper thought the program might be the perfect fit for her.

“I enrolled and it was great,” she said. “It was more hands-on, which was easier for me.”

It was while taking classes in the school’s aesthetics program that she realized what her passion is.

“It just came to me,” she said. “I thought, ‘Wow, this is really fun.’ You always have to try something to really know.”

In the aesthetics program, Toepper learns about skin care, makeup, hair removal, and spa techniques.

The classes are incredibly hands-on, and she gets to split her days between school in Bremerton and a few high school classes in Chimacum.

The transition was difficult at first, but now she’s used to the drive and enjoys the independence.

But most of all, she enjoys what she studies.

“I just like making people feel beautiful,” she said. “I like helping them know they are beautiful and showing them how to enhance their natural beauty.”

On top of that, Toepper gets to express her artistic side.

“Part of our course is makeup,” she said. “That’s where you get to express your abstract makeup skills. I love doing fun makeup — I think I carry that over into my art, and back and forth between the two.”

Next year, while she’s taking courses at West Sound Tech, Toepper also hopes to spend time taking art classes. She loves pottery, drawing and painting.

“I want to focus on art and expressing myself through that,” she said.