Los Altos High School seniors take off

By Kathleen Acuff, Town Crier Staff Writer

Los Altos High School graduation speaker Katherine Zhang asks graduates, “Who do you want to be?” during the ceremony.

“Dance as if no one was watching. … Speak out, even if no one is listening.” Principal George L. Perez gave his final instructions to the Class of 2004 Friday evening.

The seniors robed in Eagle blue were alive to his words and to one another’s presence in the bleachers on the Los Altos High School football field. Perez challenged the seniors to learn to see the beauty in themselves and to change the world:

“If not the entire planet, the world you live in, your family.”

Under a bright blue sky streaked with cirrus clouds, everything seemed new, anything seemed possible. The band and orchestra played “Pomp and Circumstance”; the concert choir and the Main Street Singers were in beautiful voice; the three seniors who served as mistress and masters of ceremonies, Acacia Newlon-Yafai, Hector Medina and Brian Auerbach, kept the evening on schedule and ushered in each event in clear, ringing voices. Matt Bresnahan led the assembly in the Pledge of Allegiance.

The four students who had earned the privilege of addressing the audience urged their classmates to create themselves and their world afresh and to remember the present.

“High school is painful, it’s difficult and definitely real,” said Laura Godden. “Inside you is the power to do great and incredible things. … You can shape the world around you. You have strength and power and choice. I implore you to choose change.”

Michael Levin-Gesundheit told his classmates, “We should never leave Los Altos High School behind … (but) now we must embrace the greater challenges of our community. … We are entering a world that we must change.”

Godden quoted Robert Kennedy: “‘Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope.’ We are 329 ripples about to become powerful waves. Congratulations, Class of 2004! The world is ours.”

Katherine Zhang asked the seniors and their guests, “Who - not what - do you want to be? … In choosing who you want to be … you are creating your world. … Stop, and start thinking about how you are creating this world.”

Zhang reminded her classmates that she had chosen this year to turn away from cynicism and fear and “to meet everyone and everything with optimism and love.” Such changes will be our next evolutionary step, she said - humanity will go “from garbage to gods.”

Lauren Palmor told the seniors, “Make a memory of this day.” She would remember it, she said, as “the day I (pinned) wings to my back and began to fly.”

Charlene Yim presented the senior class gift, a bronze statuette, to the principal.

“Thank you for making this high school as great as it is and for loving every student at this school,” she said to him as the seniors cheered and whistled their appreciation.

Perez clearly relished the opportunity to distribute the awards of the day and speak of the students who received them. The Paul S. Sakamoto Community Service award went to three students who far outstripped the eligibility requirement of 100 hours of public service. Having donated more than 2,400 hours to community service, Yim, Dana Shapiro and Christopher Bundy earned Perez’s warm praise as well as the award.

Seven students earned certificates of recognition for achieving a 4.0 grade-point average: Nathan Fenner, Levin-Gesundheit, Laurel Lathrop, Newlon-Yafai, Daan Stevenson, Alison Tarbell and Tao Tao Zhang. Auerbach, Godden, Levin-Gesundheit and Yim won Eagle awards, to the evident delight of their classmates.

Phil Faillace, Steve Hope and Julia Rosenberg of the Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District district presented the diplomas as Dee Dee Pearce and Tiffany Potter summoned each student by name. The seniors and audience greeted each name with cheers and whistles, applause and the deafening honk of klaxons.

It was the last high school graduation Perez will preside over as principal. He assumes the position of superintendent of Mount Pleasant School District July 1.

“I can’t think of a better place to end my high school career. It’s been wonderful. They’re great kids, and I love them,” Perez said as the seniors filed off the field to the sound of “Summon the Heroes.” Above them, several Eagle-blue, star-shaped balloons floated into the sky and sailed out of sight.