Noah Puckett, 18, a Verde Valley School senior who spent much of his childhood traveling and studying abroad, will be attending Dartmouth College this fall to major in mechanical engineering.

“Then I hope to either minor or double major in sustainability engineering or environmental systems,” Puckett said.

“Noah’s a great kid, a four-year senior, friend to all, multi-season soccer, chess, track and field athlete, our resident tech theatre guru, and among our leading actors … [he’s an] old soul, kind to all and pillar of the community,” VVS Head of School Ben Lee said.

Puckett is a day student at VVS and said that he was attracted to mechanical engineering because he believed it to be the best path to developing alternative energy technologies and reducing carbon emissions.

“When I was 2, I wanted to be an inventor, because that was my idea of what a real job looked like,” Puckett said. “But as I grew up, it evolved into ‘I want to do engineering,’ since that’s kind of the closest thing that’s actually a job.”

“Noah was homeschooled before he went to VVS, and so he was able to develop a really interesting approach to learning,” his mother Erin Puckett said. “I didn’t put any sort of hard standards on him. I let him follow his excitement and go as deep as he wanted to go into any subject. And so I just think that that’s kind of an interesting part of his story, for someone who’s going into an Ivy League, that it was by instilling a love of learning and natural curiosity that kind of led him into academia. And so people can start anywhere and end up where they want to be.”

Being homeschooled since fourth grade allowed Puckett to spend extended periods studying abroad, where he attended Montessori schools in South Africa, Kenya and Eswatini — formerly Swaziland — and spent several months at a research station in the Amazon rainforest while his mother volunteered with nongovernmental organizations.

“I live with my mom here, and then my dad lives in Louisiana, and I have a stepmom, and then two half siblings, but I’m mainly here with my mom,” Puckett said. “For me, being homeschooled really impacted my approach to education in a positive way. For me to be homeschooled was to learn what I loved and kind of investigate what I enjoy doing. That created a love of learning inside myself … I wouldn’t have had that same love for learning if I had been in a public school.”

Puckett said he wanted to enroll at VVS to experience a traditional high school environment. He was captain of the track and soccer teams and said he was working toward breaking his record in the 800-meter run before the end of the school year. He was also president of the VVS Interact Club and active in the school’s theatre program, playing Jack in “Into the Woods,” Lysander in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and Mr. Body in “Clue: The Musical.”

“I love theatre. Before I went to VVS, I worked with the Emerson Theater Collaborative … for several years, and I was a stage manager, lighting technician and sound technician for them on various plays,” Puckett said.

“I first met Noah when he came to work with us at [ETC] as our sound person about four years ago,” ETC President Camilla Ross said. “If he decided to go into the arts he’d make a great technical director. He’s quick with sound. He understands lighting and backstage. He understands all the things that make up creating a show technically … But whatever he does he’s going to make the world a great place.”

Puckett plays piano and bass and also composes instrumental music, and recently scored a short documentary film for a Northern Arizona University student. He said that he enjoys collecting vintage records such as Bob Dylan’s 1963 “The Freewheelin’” for how they reflect the social and cultural landscape of its time. He has also played chess since the age of three, helped start the Community Library Sedona Youth Chess Club and won a state championship in 2023 before helping the VVS team to a group championship.

“Dartmouth enticed me for a lot of reasons. Number one, obviously, the academics, being an Ivy League school, are just unparalleled,” Puckett said. “I was very enticed by their outdoors program. The Dartmouth Outing Club is one of the oldest outdoor programs in the country, and that access to the outdoors, I don’t think, is found to that extent [at] another school at that academic calibre. So it’s was a great balance between my love for the outdoors and my academic success. Also the community at Dartmouth … seemed the most collaborative and friendly environment that I could put myself in.”

Puckett said that he plans to live on the Dartmouth campus “at least for the first few years.”

“The thing about VVS I’ll miss the most is really the community,” Puckett said. “The community aspect of VVS is what enticed me to the school the most. While its academics are amazing, and outdoor education, I love beyond love, I think, the community elements of VVS is what’s really striking. It really feels like you’re part of it and you’re not excluded, and kind of you’re all friends with each other, and it’s a really great space to be in.”