By KT BUCKLER SONOMA ACADEMY, JUNIOR, 16 In a little over a year’s time, I will be nervously awaiting college acceptance letters. I have a 4.3 GPA, am bilingual and participate in numerous extracurricular activities. These sound like the kind of things colleges are looking for, right? Not [...]
By PAUL PAYNE THE PRESS DEMOCRAT It is the rare teen who does not dread doing homework. But in Paulina Cradeur’s case, the hours spent hitting the books every night are a prelude to a career in the sciences. The Analy High School junior hopes someday to parlay [...]
By JEREMY HAY THE PRESS DEMOCRAT It’s the back tumbling. “Certain skills I’m really afraid of,” said Alina Goodrum, 16, describing the gymnastics move that most wracks her nerves. “Ever since I can remember, that’s been her nemesis,” said Darcie Fellows, who has coached Goodrum, a junior at [...]
By ARTHUR MORGAN SONOMA VALLEY HIGH SCHOOL, SENIOR, 17 Whenever I call my cousin in France I’m always taken aback at her English rhetoric — not only is it grammatically and linguistically fluid but, rather, her confidence in her speech resonates through her steady pronunciation and ever so [...]
By JULIE JOHNSON THE PRESS DEMOCRAT Rose Hammock is a natural leader. The sway of the 16-year-old junior at Elsie Allen High School in Santa Rosa comes in the form of a slew of unabashed questions for teachers and speakers. And it shows in how Hammock is often [...]
By BOB NORBERG THE PRESS DEMOCRAT Amanda M. Hauth remembers when golf for her was making sand angels in the bunkers, while now it is celebrating the rare hole-in-one and anchoring her high school team. In the Windsor High School senior’s future, golf may lead to a college [...]
By CATHY BUSSEWITZ THE PRESS DEMOCRAT When life handed Jasmine Elliott emotionally challenging circumstances, she turned them into an opportunity to give and to grow. Elliott was in seventh grade when her mother was diagnosed with a rare form of ovarian cancer. Her mom since has recovered, but [...]
By ROBERT DIGITALE THE PRESS DEMOCRAT Kelsey Tarantino is one big step closer to her goal of acting on Broadway. Tarantino, a 2012 Santa Rosa High School graduate who has performed in more than 20 local productions, recently began acting classes at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. The [...]
By RANDI ROSSMANN THE PRESS DEMOCRAT Shahalam Baig, 18, a recent graduate of Technology High School in Rohnert Park, gets queasy around blood. Still interested in medical issues, he’d like to build instruments to help doctors. “I don’t want to have to look at blood,” said Baig, who [...]