Each year before graduation, the Dispatch profiles a few
outstanding soon-to-be Gilroy High School graduates. Selected with
input from GHS staff, these seniors represent some of the best
Gilroy has to offer.
Each year before graduation, the Dispatch profiles a few outstanding soon-to-be Gilroy High School graduates. Selected with input from GHS staff, these seniors represent some of the best Gilroy has to offer.
We salute them, their families, their mentors and all the graduating seniors in the class of 2007 for their accomplishments. Best wishes on a fulfilling future.
Alexis Dalke’s leadership started small, with small roles, such as bathroom monitor at Rod Kelley Elementary School. But it’s grown over her 13 years in the district, and, as a leading member of the cheerleading squad and the associated student body president, she is one of the most recognized faces on campus.
Dalke’s leadership and her diverse extracurricular roles – including member of the Gilroy Youth Commission and Young Democrats of California – stem from her love of school and her community. In fact, cheerleading, her main after-school endeavor, was a direct result of trying to boost school spirit.
“It was the way for me to combine something I love – dance – with being involved with school,” she said.
Gilroy High School rewarded her with nine scholarships totaling $9,700.
Heading off to the University of California, Berkeley in the fall, Dalke is unsure whether she will strive for a leadership role at Cal. However, she will be bringing with her the same attitude that turned that bathroom monitor into a student body president.
“It’s pretty big,” she said. “So maybe I’ll do something small.
If you go to a family reunion with Nathen Aleman, don’t forget to warm up your vocal cords because when the relatives of this trumpet-blaring Men’s Chorus member get together, the karaoke machine is bound to come out.
“We all get together and we make fools out of ourselves,” he said.
But there is nothing foolish about Aleman’s musical acumen. A four-year member of the Gilroy High School marching band, he has earned the respect of his teachers and fellow students with his instrumental skills.
He first picked up the trumpet at age 7, thanks to his uncle. Another uncle plays the piano, and his mother and grandmother sing traditional and contemporary songs.
While Aleman hopes to pursue architectural or civil engineering after two years at Gavilan College for general education, he will also strive to keep playing music. In addition to the joy it brings him, music has also become a way to give thank for and pay tribute to the lesson his uncle taught him.
“I have his trumpet now,” he said. “I got to take over in a way.”
It doesn’t matter what a Gilroy High School student does or is interested in, they cannot avoid running into Krystal Rincon.
Whether it’s as the devil’s apprentice in the senior play, rattling off a speech at a debate competition or between the pages of the school newspaper, Rincon makes her voice heard.
“I like being in the public,” she said. “I just do anything that puts me out there.”
Rincon was not always this forward. A shy student through middle school, Rincon was transformed after her freshman year of high school by seeing effective speakers take the podium at a Junior State of America summer camp.
“I realized how influential the people who are good speakers are. If I could learn how to do this, I could change a lot of lives,” she recalled thinking.
Rincon was active in the theater and the talent show, for which she provided public relations support. While she is not surprised at her shift into the public light, her parents are still somewhat stunned.
“They couldn’t even get me to talk to people,” she said. When they see her on stage, “They don’t even realize I’m their daughter.”
Rincon plans to be an active part of student life at university, though she is not certain what means she will use to communicate her ideas. However, she is not stressed about finding her niche – communication is a delight for her, not a chore.
When Dana Roberts goes away to college, she will need an ark if she plans to bring some of her most beloved friends with her.
The third-generation Gilroyan has a menagerie, including rabbits, sheep and horses, split between her family’s house and her grandfather’s 12-acre ranch out on Santa Teresa Boulevard. Animals are both a family tradition and passion, as her grandfather was a large and small animal veterinarian.
“I’ve always been around horses,” he said. “I started riding before I could walk.”
Her current beau is a 16-hand – or 64-inch tall – Arabian registered as “Spot Inspector” for the brown-and-white pattern on his back and sides. Roberts, who refers to him as Maverick, competes in trail trials, in which riders guide their animals in skills such as walking backward down a hill or passing through a creek.
“That’s one of his favorites,” she said. “He’s a water baby.”
She says the trials, as well as her involvement in Future Farmers of America and the 4H club, have shaped her character.
Roberts will go to Gavilan College for general education in the fall with hopes of transferring to California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo or San Jose State University and eventually becoming an agriculture teacher.
While boarding costs might prevent her from bringing her horse along to school, Roberts knows that her separation from horses will be temporary. She hopes that one day her children will ride in competitions.
If you hang out with Matt Hemeon, don’t expect to relax on the couch and watch television. The quarterback for the football team and second baseman for the baseball team is always on the move, even out of season.
Need proof? His mom is a soccer enthusiast, his dad a baseball fanatic. His older brother plays outfield for West Valley College. And his younger sister at South Valley Middle School “does every sport you can think of,” he said. When they come together for a day of sports, things heat up.
“Our whole family is competitive,” Matt Hemeon said.
Hemeon excels off the field as well, both in academics and in citizenship. He was awarded the Gilroy High School’s Distinguished Athlete Award last week, which recognizes well-rounded players.
While his focus in college will be on academics, Hemeon is toying with the idea of trying out for the baseball team.
If he does not, it will be one of the first times he will not be playing a sport competitively. He has no qualms with the way he was reared and the emphasis his parents put on athletics.
“It’s my life,” he said. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Jairo Rodriguez was about five minutes away from missing out on a spot at Stanford University. Although the bilingual senior had the grades and the extracurricular activities needed to earn a spot and become the first in his family to attend a four-year university, he barely got his application in on time.
“I was kind of bad on deadlines” in high school, he said. “That’s my trademark.”
Another trademark was doing exceptional work, especially in math and science. He was a member of the Math, Engineering, Science Achievement club since fifth grade and part of the first-place robotics team last year with a small, orange creation made from PVC pipes.
Yet his success has not been contained to numbers. Rodriguez was goalie for the championship soccer team this winter and he cleaned up at the senior awards this year, netting eight scholarships for a total of $53,350. These achievements were validations for Rodriguez, a middle child who has learned to fight to get noticed.
“It’s kind of just pushing myself to be the best,” he said. “I’m really competitive, so I like to be on top.”
Megan Litle has been at Gilroy High School for only three years, but she has been perfect for each one of them.
The valedictorian earned straight A’s throughout her high school career, including in honors and advanced placement classes. While some might say she was born with it, she objects.
“I think it has more to do with my work ethic,” she said. “My mom always said, ‘You have to do it 100 percent.’ I never slacked off.”
This includes running track and cross-country. She was captain of cross-country both her junior and senior years and captain of the track team her senior year. She led her cross-country team to a sectional championship meet and helped them post the highest grade point average of any team in the state.
Qualifying for sophomore standing at University of Southern California next year, Litle hopes to transfer into a special program in her junior year that will put her on course to graduate in four years with both bachelor’s and master’s degrees.
Competitive running is up in the air, with her heavy academic load, but, she says, once a runner, always a runner.
Alexis Dalke, 17
College: University of California, Berkeley
Schools: Rod Kelley ES, South Valley MS
Looking Forward To: “The new people, building friendships, meeting new faces and people from different backgrounds. I’m really looking forward to dorm life.”
Biggest Challenge: “Stepping out of the comfort zone, being at the bottom rung again.”
Will Miss: “I’m really going to miss helping build up a really great associate student body.”
Nathen Aleman, 17
College: Gavilan College Schools: Brownell MS
Looking Forward To: “Meeting new people and really getting into… architecture.”
Biggest Challenge: “Keeping that musical part in my life – that will be a challenge.”
Will Miss: “Marching band – that’s done a lot for me. In the past four years, I’ve developed a sense of leadership there. It’s structured my life in a good way.”
Krystal Rincon, 18
College: University of California, Los Angeles
Schools: Glen View ES, Rucker ES, Brownell MS
Looking Forward To: “You kind of establish yourself sophomore year. Then you just cruise. I’m excited to go to UCLA and have to work again.”
Biggest Challenge: “At UCLA, you’re full of people who have stepped up. Being unique and making a difference in such a huge atmosphere is going to be a challenge.”
Will Miss: “My teachers-the support system you can get there if you look for it.”
Dana Roberts, 17
College: Gavilan College
Schools: Brownell ES, Luigi Aprea ES, Brownell MS
Looking Forward To: “The chance to learn something new and meet new people, to find out something else about myself that I don’t already know.”
Biggest Challenge: “Leaving my family behind, leaving my animals. I can’t necessarily take (my horse) with me. That will be one of the hardest things for me.”
Will Miss: “Two things: Being in choir and singing almost every day and the (agricultural) program-I’m going to miss my friends that I have there and my ag teacher, Ms. Nolan.”
Matt Hemeon, 18
College: Cal Poly, SLO
Schools: Rod Kelley ES, South Valley MS
Looking Forward To: “Just getting out, trying my own thing, starting the next chapter of my life.”
Biggest Challenge: “Probably living on my own. Not having mom and dad there, giving me a couple bucks every now and then.”
Will Miss: “Definitely the friends and family. All the memories won’t be forgotten, but will be missed.”
Jairo Rodriguez, 17
College: Stanford University
Schools: Las Animas ES, South Valley MS
Looking Forward To: “Making new friends and hanging out with them.”
Biggest Challenge: “Getting used to the rigorous courses I’m going to be taking-Stanford is known for its grueling academics.”
Will Miss: “Hanging out with friends.”
Megan Litle, 18
College: University of Southern California Schools: GHS
Looking Forward To: “The amount of opportunities that are going to be available. In college, it’s really whatever you want to do.”
Biggest Challenge: “Missing my dog, a rat terrier. I got him in junior high-he’s my little buddy.”
Will Miss:”The sense of familiarity. Even though you don’t know everyone on a personal level, you pretty much know everyone.”
