By ADAM SILOW MARIA CARRILLO HIGH SCHOOL Becoming a Navy SEAL is an aspiration that not many Americans dare to have and even fewer are able to attain. However, for Ryder DeSalvo, 18, of Santa Rosa, this has been a goal long in the making and one that [...]
By KEVIN McCALLUM THE PRESS DEMOCRAT Jasmine Jolly is totally jazzed. The 14-year-old eighth-grader at Santa Rosa Charter School just wrapped up a summer highlighted by an epic bike trip in Oregon with her family. Over two weeks, Jasmine, her mother, Amy, father, Paul, and younger sister, Solana, [...]
By MARY CALLAHAN THE PRESS DEMOCRAT Rashad Butler, seated in the front, was assigned to take the photos when he and his dad took a helicopter tour of New York City a few years back. But not a single frame was shot — because, says his dad, Butler [...]
By LORI A. CARTER THE PRESS DEMOCRAT Without a mother in her life every day, 10-year-old Morgan Schmidt-Petersen took matters into her own hands. She nominated herself to be a mentee in Mentor Me Petaluma, a Big Brothers/Big Sisters-like pairing coordinated by volunteers through local schools. Today, six [...]
By ASHLEY SLACK CASA GRANDE HIGH SCHOOL If I could say anything to my 7-year-old self, I would tell her to enjoy the time spent running around like a horse in the school play yard, and the amount of time mom tells her to sing that one Frank [...]
By KERRY BENEFIELD THE PRESS DEMOCRAT Incoming El Molino High School senior Jesse Fichman is a multitalented guy. An excellent student whose grade point average hovers around the 4.0 mark, Fichman also plays basketball, volleyball and soccer for the Lions. But Fichman’s true passion is music and nature. [...]
By T.J. GRAYSON CASA GRANDE HIGH SCHOOL Last summer, I was introduced to a new member of my family. My aunt and uncle had made the decision to adopt a 5-year-old boy named Sam from China, increasing the size of our already diverse and boisterous family. Hearing this news, I [...]
By BRETT WILKISON THE PRESS DEMOCRAT Gianna Pendleton can’t resist offering a helping hand. The 15-year-old has plenty of responsibilities of her own, starting with the full yard of farm animals she must care for at her family’s property outside Sebastopol. Those duties start at 6 a.m. [...]
By CLARK MASON THE PRESS DEMOCRAT Daniel Rosenthal performed his first professional magic show at a birthday party when he was 5 years old. By the age of 8, he was doing shows at hospitals, including performing for chemotherapy patients at Santa Rosa Kaiser, where his father works [...]
By GUY KOVNER THE PRESS DEMOCRAT Ballet and acting proved the ideal preparation for Katie Rettig’s two-year turn as a cheerleader at Cardinal Newman High School. “I love performing,” said Rettig, who was cheerleading captain her senior year and graduated in May, a day after she turned 18. [...]