By Sara Ballenger
 Photo by Monique Schoenfeld, Town Crier |
Graduating seniors talk about their year and their future
oday’s graduations at Los Altos and Mountain View high schools are bittersweet. They mark the end of a four-year journey into young adulthood, while signaling growth and change into new environments beyond the comfortable and familiar. The Town Crier takes this opportunity to highlight four outstanding seniors in the class of 2001.
Los Altos High School
Annie Van Thillo
For Annie Van Thillo, Los Altos High School is a part of her family history.
“My three older sisters all went to school here,” she said. “I came to a different Los Altos (high), of course, with all of the construction and new teachers. I was in high school in Los Altos at the perfect time.”
While at Los Altos she found her passion in field hockey. She played all four years and was captain of the team.
“I got so into the sport, it’s insane. It has been my joy. It was hard for it to end this year,” Van Thillo said of the field hockey season.
Between classes, field hockey and soccer, Van Thillo also found time to work.
“My freshman year I had a crazy job at Stanford,” she said. “My sophomore year, I worked at De Martini’s, and right now I work at Dr. Sasaki’s dental office in Los Altos.”
Van Thillo is planning to take up more hours at the dental office this summer.
“I will be making all of my money for college next year,” she said.
She will work in the dental office until August, when she leaves for Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Ore.
“It’s so strange, the reaction I get when I tell people I am going there,” she said. “It’s so small. Classes only have 15 people each. My high school classes had more people than that,” she said with a laugh. She has family in Portland and an aunt who teaches at Lewis and Clark.
While at Lewis and Clark, Van Thillo is not sure what it is she wants to study, but she does know she is ready to learn.
“Lewis and Clark doesn’t pressure you to decide, but I think I am going into art,” she said.
“I want space to grow.” Van Thillo was voted most artistic of her graduating class.
While Van Thillo said the art classes at Lewis and Clark are difficult to get into, she hopes to be assigned to an art oriented dorm.
“There is an art and dance studio, and dark room on the bottom floor,” she said.
“So if I don’t get to take any art classes, I can still use the studio,” she said.
While at Los Altos High School, Van Thillo took a studio Advanced Placement (AP) art class from Shoji Wada.
“She’s an outstanding student,” Wada said of Van Thillo. “She has developed her technical ability and is really doing college-level work.”
Van Thillo had to turn in her art portfolio, showcasing a year’s worth of work to get her AP credit.
“My portfolio was stressful, but more satisfying,” she said. “You photograph your work and put it in slide form. It was nice to see my art in one big chunk. It was a class I could use my most favorite talent and run with any idea.”
As a junior, Van Thillo traveled to London, Paris and other parts of France with Wada’s art class. She is fluent in French.
“She has been to Europe once before with her family,” said her mother, Barbara. “She’s been exposed to art and loves it. She has a good grasp on European civilization and its influence on Americans.”
She also plans to study abroad in Strasbourg, France, her junior year at Lewis and Clark.
Van Thillo does not want to limit herself.
“I want to be inspired and I want to experience life,” she said.
Van Thillo’s enthusiasm for life seems to be her trademark.
“She is enthusiastic about everything she does,” Barbara said. “She’s an all-around people person, and she always has a unique spin on things. Her dad, older sisters and I are very proud of her.”
Alex Brown
Associated Student Body (ASB) president, a co-MVP (Most Valuable Player), a varsity basketball and volleyball player, are just a few of the many descriptions of Alex Brown. Brown played center on the basketball team and middle blocker on the volleyball team.
The 6-footer seems like she was born to play sports.
“Sports have been an important part of my life,” she said, “learning how to put my mind to something, to focus and to keep organized.”
Brown often had to balance two-hour practices with her class schedule. Staying organized became key to her success as a student.
“My freshman year, I worked with (Assistant Principal) Wynne Satterwhite to introduce a student planner on campus,” she said. “It gives me a warm feeling inside to see fellow students pull out their planners.” Working with faculty and students to improve her school is something she has been doing since the third grade, as class representative at Almond Elementary School.
“Student government has been an important part of my life,” she said. “I was sophomore class president, and that was my introduction into the greater student body at Los Altos.”
After her stint as sophomore class president, Brown was the clubs commissioner her junior
year and coordinated all of the student-run clubs on campus.”A lot of doors opened for me opportunity-wise, knowing what’s happening on campus.”
In her senior year, Brown was elected ASB president.
“I kind of worked my way up the totem pole. It’s been a wonderful experience and a wonderful year,” she said of her time as ASB president.
Brown is leaving in the fall to study at Princeton University, in Princeton, N.J.
She will have the support of her brother, Ryan, who will be a junior there next fall.
Brown is interested in science and medicine, but is unsure what she will be majoring in.
“It’s a liberal arts college, so I am going to be trying something new, I guess, ” she said. “I want to try it all.”
Brown’s family has no doubt that she will be a success.
“I think Alex just has a marvelous soul. She is so natural and has enthusiasm and energy,” said her mother, Shelley.
“We’re just hoping she gets exposure to lots of different things in life, and continues channeling her energies into the world, making herself happy.”
Mountain View High School
Kristi Uribes
Between her English and Calculus Advanced Placement (AP) classes, horseback riding, taking dance classes and hanging out with friends, Kristi Uribes has been learning how to play the guitar.
“I have been playing guitar for a year and a half,” she said. “I am still very much learning, but I am having so much fun with it.”
Learning and fun seem to go hand in hand with Uribes.
“I was in the Dance Spectrum program at school for two years,” she said. “It was a lot of fun. The program is a whole lot of everything from ballet and hip-hop, to jazz.”
Uribes also enjoyed working on the Youth Advisory Board with Congresswoman Anna Eshoo.
“Our advisory board chose the topic of teachers’ salaries and issues for teachers in general - including tax breaks,” Uribes said. “We put together our proposal and presented it to Congresswoman Eshoo. I wasn’t interested in politics at all, but this expanded my interest in ways I didn’t think I would be going.”
Not only does Uribes have fun with what she does, she is also a hard worker. She worked during the school year at Full House Farm, a horse farm in Los Altos, doing stable chores. In the summer, she works at Deer Hollow Farm.
While on staff at the Deer Hollow summer camp, Uribes has the opportunity to work with younger kids.
“You learn so much from kids,” she said. “You learn patience, to have a good time and not to take things too seriously. They are always smiling.”
Uribes offered some words of wisdom to the freshman class of 2001.
“Do everything you want to be doing, learn from everybody, get involved and meet lots of people,” she said.
Uribes will be taking her own advice when she starts school at the University of California at Davis this fall. She has not yet decided on a major.
“I am leaning toward everything,” she said. “My goal at Davis is, take as many classes as possible and pick something I really love. I can’t picture myself doing one thing forever.”
Uribes has some time to decide her major this summer while she travels to Spain, France, Monaco and Italy, for two weeks in July with friends. “It will be my first time to Europe - we are so excited,” she said.
Uribes feels her experiences at Mountain View High will help her in her travels as well as in life.
“More than anything, my experiences at Mountain View have given me the courage to go out and do what it is that I want to do, and to be part of a community,” she said.
Rory Brown
The sports editor for the student newspaper, a marching band member, a varsity tennis player and the Associated Student Body (ASB) treasurer was asked to speak at graduation. Brown will talk about looking back on his four years at Mountain View High.
“It’s about the more fun parts of high school, like the inside jokes we have, the places we’ve been, the little things and just being teen-agers, basically,” he said.
Brown knows that his life will be different after graduation.
“I am going to miss the luxury of being with my friends every day and being in an environment I am so comfortable in,” he said.
Brown will be living on campus at the University of California in San Francisco, on his own for the first time.
“I am excited,” he said. “I know once I am doing it, I will realize a lot of things I took for granted. It’s a new experience and it’s time for me to do it.”
Brown was awarded a President’s Scholarship which will cover three quarters of his yearly tuition.
“It’s the top academic scholarship for academic excellence and involvement in school,” said his dad, Tim. “We’re extremely proud of him.”
Brown has already decided on his major, media studies.
“I love to write. It’s fun to research something and organize it,” he said. “It feels good to see your byline and to do something so many people will look at.”
Brown also hopes to learn more about himself while in college. “I want to try new things and to find new things out about myself,” he said. “The more I am willing to pursue, the more successful I am going to be.”
