By GLENDA ANDERSON THE PRESS DEMOCRAT The summer before Willa Kurland started kindergarten, she decided she wanted to read and write. With quiet determination, she notified her parents, who helped her accomplish her goal. “It was pretty cute. She has always been extremely bright,” said Tashe Kurland, one [...]
By DEREK MOORE THE PRESS DEMOCRAT Swing Set, the jazz combo Connor Rutten founded when he was a student at Santa Rosa’s Maria Carrillo High School, has earned raves in performances at festivals and special events. That includes the group’s first-place performance at the 2012 Reno Jazz Festival [...]
By SIMONE VAN OMMEREN-AKELMAN CASA GRANDE HIGH SCHOOL I’m typically home from school at around 3:15, and I already know what to expect as soon as I unlock my door and walk through the entryway. No matter how my day went, I can always be assured that I [...]
By PAUL PAYNE THE PRESS DEMOCRAT When Kirsten Smith goes to Cal Poly this fall to study business management, she'll be one step further down the road of achieving her career goal: Becoming the head of a large company. It’s a path the 2012 Healdsburg High School graduate [...]
By JEREMY HAY THE PRESS DEMOCRAT At Rancho Cotate High School, if it happened in the last few years, there’s a good chance Michelle Mejia helped make it so. The 18-year-old Mejia, who graduated June 1 — at a ceremony where she collected a barrelful of honors — [...]
By JULIE JOHNSON THE PRESS DEMOCRAT Alicia Soto has moved a lot. She moved from a Central Valley farming town to Santa Rosa when she was about 4. She returned to Delano near Visalia to be with her father for much of elementary school and was back in [...]
By RACHEL LOUGHMAN PETALUMA HIGH SCHOOL, SENIOR, 18 The inherent eagerness to grow up is never surprising. Everyone believes they are capable of so much more than high school allows. But whether one is ready for the trials of adulthood is another matter entirely. Graduating high school does not make [...]
By CECILIA HEATER PETALUMA HIGH SCHOOL, JUNIOR, 16 Young adults graduating early in high school means giving up activities students usually experience during their senior year, but it also means gaining opportunities that students usually do not obtain when they are in school all day. It is a [...]
By BOB NORBERG THE PRESS DEMOCRAT Cycling takes up a large part of Drew Gonzales’ life. He competes in races most weeks and hopes to qualify to race internationally, a dream of his. “I am looking forward to a race in Canada this summer,” said Gonzales, a [...]
By ADAM SILOW MARIA CARRILLO HIGH SCHOOL When Alec Miller entered high school in 2008, he did not expect that by the time he graduated he would have a full-time job with the eventual possibility of a six-figure salary, while many of his peers would be going [...]