GILROY
– When Archbishop Mitty seniors graduate May 31, it will be two
Gilroy students who stand atop the prestigious San Jose high
school’s Class of 2003.
GILROY – When Archbishop Mitty seniors graduate May 31, it will be two Gilroy students who stand atop the prestigious San Jose high school’s Class of 2003.
Former Gilroy Unified School District students Kathryne Bevilacqua and Alie Fohner earlier this month were named valedictorian and salutatorian of their graduating class. The girls were honored for their academic performance during their four years at the high school as well as their school and community involvement during that time.
Their next step? Bevilacqua, who earned a 4.59 grade point average at Mitty, will move on to Harvard University to study English and philosophy.
“I knew I was in the running, but since valedictorian isn’t based entirely on GPA it came as a pleasant surprise,” Bevilacqua said.
Fohner will stay more local next fall. A student-athlete award winner at Mitty, she will attend Stanford University.
“We call it the Gilroy sweep,” said Nancy Fohner, the mother of the salutatorian. “But it’s a sad example of the ‘brain drain’ that went out of Gilroy the last few years.”
The “brain drain” refers to the, some say, dozens of families with gifted children who chose not to attend Gilroy High School in recent years. For the Bevilacquas and Fohners, and many other
parents who have spoken on the matter, a lack of aca-demic rigor and oppor-tunity was the driving force behind their exodus.
Only this year has GHS re-estab-lished its honors program. And at the beginning
of this year, the school removed the extra point value given to grades received in Advanced Placement courses. This last issue has since been resolved and grade weighting is now coming back at GHS.
According to parents at the high school, no GHS students have been accepted to an Ivy League school or Stanford this year. Just within the Bevilacquas and Fohners’ four-girl carpool, four Mitty students are headed to high profile colleges – Bevilacqua to Harvard, Fohner to Stanford, Merideth Frey to Wellesley and Rachel Ruiz to Dartmouth.
“I think (Kathryne) would have gotten into Harvard if she went to GHS,” said Don Bevilacqua, Kathryne’s father. “But I think by going to Mitty she is better prepared for Harvard and what’s expected of her there.”
