Look into the car next to you this evening and chances are it will have someone attending a high school graduation. Both Monte Vista and San Ramon Valley high schools are holding their commencement exercises tonight; Del Amigo Continuation High School graduated last night, June 15; and Venture Independent Study seniors will graduate June 21. The Athenian School kicked off the season with its commencement June 2.
To join in the excitement, we interviewed seven graduating seniors from the public high schools. They expressed good memories of their high school years and sadness at leaving their friends. But they are also excited about the future and what the next year will bring. They all seemed well prepared to meet any challenges – they, their parents and their educators can be proud.
Congratulations to the class of 2006.
Ashley Cheung
Ashley Cheung is more than a basketball star, although that’s how many in the San Ramon Valley High community know her.Ashley and four other girls, Dani King, Meghan Yetman, Devon Pierce and Jen Dreessen, have been together on the basketball court since they played CYO in the fourth grade, culminating this year as Wolves by winning the North Coast Section title, against all odds. “It’s been a crazy season and a crazy journey,” said Ashley. “We worked hard and believed in ourselves.”
Ashley was in the Danville Girls Chorus for eight years and has studied dance, as the student body found out when she joined the dance team onstage at the last rally. She also studied the violin for 15 years, and gave her senior solo recital last Friday night. “It will be my way of saying goodbye,” she said.
She also took AP honors classes and was student body vice president. Ashley is proud of the leadership role she played on the student council and the changes they affected, such as keeping the campus cleaner. And she enjoyed being elected homecoming queen. “You can’t change who you are but you can make yourself better,” she said she has learned. “You have to try different things, and can’t be afraid of looking stupid.”
She was sentimental about her friends, teachers and family, and the emotions leading up to graduation day. “San Ramon has given me so much,” she said. “I couldn’t have had a better high school experience.” She said her older sister advised her it’s better to leave a good situation, even if it is sad.
Now she’s heading off to UC San Diego, to pursue a degree in business management. “It’s a daunting experience,” she said. She purposely chose a large university. “It enticed me because you have more opportunity to explore who you are,” she said. “There are different avenues.”
Ashley plans to try out for the UCSD basketball team, too, and has already sent a tape and talked to the assistant coach. But if she ends up playing at the intramural level, she said that’s fine, too.
–Dolores Fox Ciardelli
Megan McDermott
It’s “senior cut day,” but she’s not at the beach or at the mall. Instead, talented San Ramon Valley High School jazz ensemble member Megan McDermott is singing with her choir class.“We call ourselves ‘choir nerds’ because so much of our time is dedicated to it,” she said.
High school is a time to explore and find what you’re passionate about, she said. For Megan, acting and singing are what make her heart race. She has been in several community musical theater productions in the Tri-Valley area and prefers to be in comedies. Next year she plans to study theater at University of Southern California and to “just see how it goes.”
“It has a really good film school, so it will be nice to act for films,” she said.
While she’s a little apprehensive about leaving her family, she is excited that she will live in Los Angeles and be in a less sheltered environment. Like many other SRVHS students, she refers to Danville as “the bubble.”
“This is a good place to grow up, but I’m ready to get into the real world,” she said.
For the last four years Megan has been involved in so many organizations, she has had barely any free time. It has been a challenge to juggle all of her activities and still have a social life, she said.
Megan may be focused and driven, but she doesn’t take herself too seriously. You have to be able to laugh at yourself, she said, recalling one embarrassing situation in high school. At a pep rally – in front of the whole student body – she was singing with the jazz ensemble and she tripped and fell over the carpet.
“I jumped up in the air and didn’t miss a beat. I know I’m clumsy … you can’t take yourself too seriously,” she said.
Overall, she said she is looking forward to making new friends and having a fresh start in college.
–Natalie O’Neill
Laura Mizes
Looking beyond the big Danville Oak Tree and the bright California coast, San Ramon Valley High School senior Laura Mizes sees a promising future in the southern state of Missouri.She plans to follow her passion for writing at the Columbia School of Journalism at the University of Missouri.
“I get kidded a lot about that,” she said. “But whatever.” Her grandparents and her father were from St. Louis.
Laura said leaving high school and entering college is the start of her new life.
“It’s the beginning of the end,” she said. “I’m really excited about college and living alone.”
“I aspire to my own dreams,” she added.
Laura said she learned a great deal about her love of writing, about herself personally, and the world outside high school by singing in New Orleans with her choir group, feeling the community spirit at her local synagogue, and being involved as a counselor for the Contra Costa County Midrasha, a Jewish community for teens.
Though Laura had an eventful teenage experience, she is ready to move forward.
“I will miss my friends, but I will not miss the essence of high school,” she said. “I think groups of people at an early age develop cliques. Four years is about the right time for being in high school.”
She said she had many positive moments in high school that helped her grow. Laura was an arts editor for her school newspaper. She was disappointed when the school administrators censored her staff from printing a story about teenagers smoking a hookah at a bar.
She said surrounding one’s self with friends that are supportive yet challenging helps one mature. She also experienced close bonds with other students who were part of musical choir director Ken Abram’s program.
“It was the highlight of high school,” she said. “We are so blessed to have an amazing program. We are really a family – we fight but we find a way to get together.”
Now Laura said she is looking forward to moving to Missouri because of the openness of strangers there and the lively school spirit.
–Jordan M. Doronila
Josh Rottman
Call him the inquisitor. What does this mean? How does it work? Why do we care?Asking questions and understanding complexities defined high school senior Josh Rottman’s experience at Monte Vista High School.
“It’s better to learn something more than at face value,” he said. Understanding how things work enabled him to apply his findings practically in life, he said.
When Rottman attends UC Davis in September, he will harness his inquisitive energy and pursue political science. He said he is eager to begin a new life even though he enjoyed his high school experience. At Monte Vista, he played the tenor saxophone, played lacrosse and participated in mock trial debates.
He said when he discusses social and political topics, he gets riled up and feels the need to express his point of view. “I’m very verbal,” he said. “It’s a good outlet.”
In debates, he said most people do not understand how illegal immigrants are important to the economy; the War in Iraq had good intentions, but U.S. troops have been there too long; and the current U.S. President does not have sufficient knowledge to run the country.
Often when he hears a comment he feels strongly about, he asks himself, “How can I refute that?”
Questioning has also helped Rottman get through challenges. Not being able to play on the lacrosse team this year because he had broken his hand in an accident was disappointing. He said he had worked hard to get on the varsity team, which is ranked high in the state.
“I put a lot of work into something and I felt I didn’t get the role I deserved,” he said. To release his frustration, he made a highlight reel of his team; his teammates saw what he did for them, and he then felt he was a part of their success.
Studying Hebrew and the Old Testament and forming bonds with Jewish youths during a trip to an Israel helped him understand how his culture related to him.
“I bonded with them,” Rottman said about the Jewish youth group. “They are real. You need people like that in your life.”
–Jordan M. Doronila
Gerren Taylor
Four schools in four years – it may not be typical or even ideal. But for Gerren Taylor, moving around the country with his family has taught him more about life than a textbook ever could.“I’ve had different friends every year,” he said. “You gotta run with life, not away from it.”
When he reflects on the people he has known and the things he has done in high school, he has to specify what part of the country he was in. You might hear him say “Back in Kansas City, we…” or “Down in Sacramento, I …”
Gerren is happy living in Danville and he isn’t scared of change, he said.
“It’s a more positive area. It’s safe out here,” he said.
He has made the best of his time at Monte Vista High School by excelling in track and placing 18th in the state last year. Track was a good way to make new friends and he especially liked the fact that it was coed, he said.
“If you do well (in track) people want to come up and talk to you. I got to hang out and meet new people,” he said.
Math classes have been the biggest struggle for him academically and he prefers to study English and philosophy. When he studies at Sacramento State next year, he wants to focus on political science with an emphasis in public administration.
He wants to learn how to run a city and he hopes to be involved in politics and public planning. Having lived in several cities, he understands urban life.
“If I had to change Danville, I’d put in more low-income housing,” he said. “For Oakland, I’d take out some of the liquor stores and build more churches.”
Modeling and acting are two hobbies Gerren also hopes to pursue in college, but in the future there is just one area where he wants to excel.
“The only thing I want to be good at is being a father,” he said.
He is nervous about the responsibilities of being on his own but is looking forward to it. He said he may keep pursuing track or join the U.S. Air Force. Whatever he does, he’ll keep running with life.
–Natalie O’Neill
Carly Weckstein
All life is a stage, said Shakespeare, but the stage that captivates Monte Vista senior Carly Weckstein is the one presenting the Bard’s plays. She is attending the Youth REP summer program in Walnut Creek for the third year in a row and was hoping to be chosen for the part of Lady MacBeth in its upcoming production.Carly said she really began to find herself after her sophomore year when she joined the intensive six days per week, six-week Youth REP summer program and discovered her love of acting. She likes musical productions – she had the lead in Monte Vista’s “Bye, Bye, Birdie” – but her true love is serious drama and Shakespeare.
She said the most important thing she has learned in the last four years is the importance of self-respect, and to value her true friends. She quoted Dr. Seuss: “Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.” She said high school was truly a time of growth and her acting has helped her to find herself.
Carly said the fall of her senior year was the most stressful because she was applying to the drama departments of four universities, including in New York and Boston, which required tryouts in person. She got into all four but her first choice was UCLA so that acceptance was thrilling. “I started screaming,” she recalled with a laugh.
“During all of high school, I wanted to move on,” she said. “Now I’m getting sad. I wanted the last two months to go slower.” She also noted that she has seen good things happen to good, hard-working people as her high school days wind down to a close. “That has restored my faith,” she said.
Carly is looking forward to growing and finding herself even more in college. Although she was good in science and math, she won’t miss them while she majors in acting. “I love English and literature a lot, too,” she said. “I have no trouble giving extra, giving 110 percent of my heart and soul.”
–Dolores Fox Ciardelli
Kevin Zhou
After watching their parents work tirelessly to earn money for their betterment, Monte Vista senior Kevin Zhou and his older brother David Zhou promised each other to succeed in life and not waste what has been given to them. Kevin said his parents moved from China to the U.S. so their sons would have a chance to thrive in a prosperous environment. His father works at the Livermore Lab and his mother was a professional ballerina.“We want to repay them,” Kevin said. “We motivated ourselves.”
David is currently a student at Harvard and intends to pursue a career in law. And now Kevin will join him at Harvard this fall. Kevin has received a full scholarship from the Frank H. & Eva B. Buck Foundation.
“My brother was a good example,” Kevin said. “I just fed off of that.”
For much of his high school experience, Kevin said, writing was one of his most enjoyable activities. He had opinion pieces printed in the San Francisco Chronicle, the Los Angeles Times and the Christian Science Monitor. He has written about how the new SATs were unfair to disadvantaged students and how teenagers care too much about what college they get into instead of focusing on where their passion lies.
He has also been part of the speech and debate club at Monte Vista and received a $3,000 scholarship from the national John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Essay Contest for High Schools last year; two were chosen out of 2,000.
Kevin is also applying his writing talents by working as an intern at the Danville Weekly. He has written features, news stories and a column. “It’s pretty cool. You get feedback from people,” he said. “People read your work.”
“Writing is something I enjoyed,” he said.
Kevin said he did not find high school demanding. Though he performed exceedingly well in his studies, he said he does not spend long hours locked in a room studying, and his parents have not pressured him or his brother to achieve success, which is a stereotype of Asian families.
“If you have balance, you will achieve success,” Kevin said.
–Jordan M. Doronila
