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Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
LGHS senior Daniel Nilsen works part time after school as an assistant to Los Gatos orthodontist Dr. Daniel Hall.
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Turning Points
Los Gatos Kiwanis Club recognizes local teenagers for their achievements
By Nate Huff and Leigh Ann Maze
Although they are not always the first high school students to be recognized, teenagers who have picked themselves up by their bootstraps and turned their attitudes and grades around are worthy of recognition, according to the Los Gatos Kiwanis Club.
For the second year, the Club recognized students from Los Gatos and Saratoga High Schools who started high school off on the wrong foot, but turned themselves around and are now graduating with plans for college or post-high school programs.
At a luncheon held on May 4, at the Los Gatos Lodge, the Kiwanians awarded four students from LGHS and two from SHS $1,000 Turnaround Scholarships to be used for further education. The scholarships are funded by the Leo Shortino Family Trust and the Kiwanis Club, as well as 14 contributing Los Gatos area businesses.
The Turnaround Scholarships arrived at the Los Gatos-Saratoga Joint Union High School District with Trudy McCulloch. Before becoming principal at LGHS in 1998, McCulloch worked for more than 30 years in the Eastside Union High School District in San Jose. There, McCulloch was a member of another local Kiwanis Club chapter that had given Turnaround Scholarships for more than 20 years. "After watching it for so many years on the Eastside, and as a former counselor and longtime educator, it's one of the best things I've seen," McCulloch said.
The tradition came with her to Los Gatos, where she is now a member of the Los Gatos Kiwanis Club, which gave its first Turnaround Scholarships to three LGHS students and two SHS students in 1999.
"Some people where I used to work said you're not going to have the stories or the kinds of kids over in Los Gatos as you do in Eastside," McCulloch said. While it is true the stories are different, guidance counselors at Los Gatos and Saratoga High Schools certainly had no trouble finding students deserving of the scholarships.
"Many kids have trouble adjusting to high school no matter what town or city they live in or how much money they have," McCulloch said. "This scholarship reinforces for the kids that they are on the right path, and gives them some financial support to continue."
When graduating senior Chris Abel's grades fell too low a few years ago, he was cut from the LGHS golf team. He is now back on track.
Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
Glenn Christopher Abel
Known to friends and family as Chris, Glenn Christopher Abel has always been willing to work hard--just not at school. A former soccer player and current member of LGHS's championship golf team, he says sports always took precedence over school.
The truth is, Abel explains, school just wasn't that important. "I went to school, I just didn't pay attention," he says. "I did my homework, but I didn't do it where I made it right, I just did it to get it done."
And Abel was indeed just getting it done. His GPA hovered around a 2.0 for his first two years. During his sophomore year, he earned more Ds than As, making him ineligible for the golf team. By the end of that year, he said it was becoming apparent something had to be done.
"I just realized it's ridiculous to have these grades. I had such a low GPA for a while," he says, shaking his head. Abel can't name a specific day or reason that caused his attitude toward school to change, but the results have been impressive. Back on the golf team, he pulled a 3.8 GPA in college prep classes this year, surprising everyone, including himself.
"I came to senior year wanting to get good grades," he says. "But I didn't expect to get a 3.8."
Abel's parents, Laurie and Glenn, are equally thrilled. He says that while they certainly didn't approve of his bad grades, they didn't force him to study, and he thinks that approach worked out for the better because he had to do things on his own.
"They're pretty pumped," Abel says, "because this is the first time I've won something academically; it's usually sports-oriented."
Abel has received a conditional acceptance to California State University--Monterey Bay, although he says he hasn't yet decided whether or not he'll attend there or a community college first. While he is interested in business, he admits he has no idea what he wants as a career and fears getting trapped in a college program. The only activity he knows he wants on his college schedule is golf, but he acknowledges he's got some practice to do.
While Abel weighs his options, his remaining time at LGHS is spent studying, golfing and hanging out with his eight-year-old brother and his Irish Setter.
His approach to college, wherever he may be, will be the same as high school. "I've found out that you can get good grades if you try," he says. "It's not that hard."
Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
Los Gatan Denise Beaudoin is proud of the first painting she ever did--back in 1995. The senior is now getting into creative arts again.
Denise Beaudoin
The letter "F" has a lot to do with Denise Beaudoin's life. For her first few years in high school, just avoiding an F grade was enough of a goal. Now that letter has taken on more positive connotations, as Beaudoin's grades have risen from Ds to As, and the tall brunette can see a future beyond high school.
These days, "F" stands for France, fashion and friends--integral parts of Beaudoin's identity. The Los Gatos High School senior heads to Arizona State University next fall to pursue a degree in broadcasting, with a minor in art.
LGHS guidance counselor Elsie Taketa says no one really knew why Beaudoin was doing so poorly in class, when she showed up at all. Even when she was taken off the badminton team for poor attendance, no one understood why she cared so little about school.
It was only after her freshman year was completed and Beaudoin began to change course that teachers and school counselors discovered the root of her ambivalence. Beaudoin's mother had become increasingly ill, dying at the end of her daughter's freshman year, when Beaudoin was just 14 years old.
"How do you bring that up?" Beaudoin says. "Who would I have told? I don't try to go around looking for sympathy all the time."
Instead of looking for sympathy, Beaudoin decided to honor her mother in her own way--by turning around her attitude toward school and working toward a brighter future. She stopped cutting classes, quit using drugs and started studying.
"I'd go to school. I just didn't necessarily go to class," Beaudoin says. "It was after my mom passed away [that] I could actually function, so I tried to make a vow to do good for her."
And Beaudoin, born on Bastille Day 1982 at Good Samaritan Hospital, has done just that. With mostly As and Bs, these days Denise spends her time studying, working at Los Gatos Bar and Grill, sketching fashionable clothing and forcing her friends to watch the soap opera Days of Our Lives. Ask her how she did it, and without a hint of arrogance, she says she had to do it by herself.
"I never felt like I had all that guidance growing up," Beaudoin says, explaining that her father had a "hands-off" approach towards parenting. "I basically did this on my own."
But doing it alone proved much more rewarding, Beaudoin said. She discovered good grades weren't difficult to obtain with a little hard work. Doing well in school did not preclude a social life. The smiling, laughing 17-year-old says she was gratified just to see doors opening up in front of her. As with the other scholarship winners, outside recognition was an extra bonus.
"I was so excited; it was a complete surprise," she says. "I noticed myself making changes, but I didn't think I'd get any recognition for it."
She hopes the next time she's in the news that it will be as an entertainment broadcaster covering the Grammy or Academy Awards, or anything else fun and fashionable. The young woman Taketa describes as being the "first to help a friend" is looking forward to starting down that path as an Arizona State Sun Devil next year.
"I'm excited about meeting new people--the whole college experience," she says.
Along with playing outfielder for Saratoga High School's baseball team, senior Derek Cartnell also serves as a relief catcher.
Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
Derek Cartnell
SHS student Derek Cartnell just wanted to play. Play on the football team, play guitar in his band, play on the baseball team, play with his friends. Cartnell was doing just enough school work to get by with a GPA above 2.0 so that he would be eligible to play sports, but his grades were slipping. "I was pretty much oblivious and in denial about my grades," he said.
Then one day during his junior year, just before the first football game of the season, Cartnell was told he couldn't play. He was ineligible because of his low grades.
"That was pretty devastating to me," Cartnell said. By the second semester of his junior year, Cartnell was kicked out of SHS and sent to Capitol Continuation High School. He needed to make up about 100 credits in order to graduate on time.
So, Cartnell stepped up to the plate at Capitol and worked hard. Even on the last day of class, while all of his classmates went to Great America to celebrate, Cartnell stayed behind in the classroom to finish his work. He came out of Capitol with a certificate in graphic design.
Just before the start of his senior year, Cartnell called SHS academic advisor Nina Whitcanack and told her he was coming back to SHS to play football and baseball--and to graduate. Everyone doubted he could make up the credits in time, even Whitcanack, whose job it is to provide academic support. The fact that people doubted him made him want to graduate even more and work even harder, Cartnell said.
"He really climbed the mountain he had to," Whitcanack said. "He has a bright future ahead of him if he shows the same kind of determination in life that he has shown us this past year."
Aside from taking seven classes and playing on the baseball team at SHS (which is currently competing in CCS), Cartnell is also taking a night class in U.S. History and a Brigham Young University home course in English.
"It's hard work," Cartnell said from his Saratoga home, with the laughter of his friends in the background, "but if I get it done I get to graduate. I think I'm on my way."
Cartnell was shocked to win the scholarship. "It surprised me that they would actually honor me for messing up and then coming back," he said. He credits his advisors and teachers at Capitol, and Whitcanack and Annamarie Villalobos at SHS for keeping him on task. But most of the credit goes to Cartnell himself, "For just strapping down and doing it," as he put it.
Cartnell plans to attend West Valley College in the fall, where he will pursue his interests in athletics and acting. He later hopes to transfer to a state college.
Dan Nilsen
Dan Nilsen is the first to admit he was in over his head when he made the transition from middle school to high school. LGHS guidance counselor Elsie Taketa says he was "enticed by the freedom of high school," and Nilsen would not disagree.
Eventually for Nilsen, skipping class to smoke cigarettes and eat fries at McDonald's began to catch up. A 1.2 grade point average wasn't exactly opening doors for him. He recalls his parents were going nuts trying to figure out why their child had no interest in school.
But, as Nilsen repeatedly states, no matter how much outside pressure one is under, motivation to change has to come within. "My parents were obviously mad, but I managed to make up excuses," he says. "It had no effect on me. Then, at the end of my sophomore year and the beginning of my junior year, that's when I saw that if I didn't do better in school, I wouldn't go anywhere in life."
The answer came in a trip back to his birthplace in Norway. Nilsen vanished for a year, leaving his parents and two brothers behind, to move in with his grandparents while attending class full time at an international school. There he experienced an educational system that was voluntary, not mandatory, and the other students' enthusiasm for learning rubbed off on him. Without that trip, Nilsen says, he probably never would have made it out of high school.
"I had to basically get up to the maturity level they were at," he says. "I had to try a lot harder there because of the language, and when I came back here I was still trying that hard."
All that trying has netted him a 3.0 GPA this year, and with difficult classes. Fluent in Norwegian, Dan now has a long-range outlook on life. He hopes to go to community college, transfer to the University of Southern California to study international relations and eventually work overseas, taking advantage of his language skills. "I can't handle staying in one place," he says. "That's just not who I am."
Nilsen's transformed work ethic transcends school; he's worked for nine months at a local orthodontics office, saving some money and spending some on house and techno CDs, music he became fond of while in Europe.
His limited spare time is spent reading fantasy books, hanging out with friends and taking on random little mechanical projects. Nilsen says that while he is struggling to fight "senioritis," keeping his parents proud and his options open motivates him to do well.
"I never thought I'd be recognized for doing bad and then overcoming it," he says. "To get rewarded aside from what I rewarded myself with for changing my life--it blew me away."
Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
Once an unmotivated student, LGHS senior Georgeann O'Brien has discovered many new interests. One of them is playing the piano.
Georgeann O'Brien
No one ever really thought Georgeann O'Brien was slow, she just seemed to be too much of an individual to conform to the formalities of public education. According to Taketa, O'Brien just didn't really see the point.
"Her penchant for learning has always been there," Taketa says. "But to be honest, it has often lain dormant."
Ironically, it was a couple of teachers and a single class that proved the turning point for this shy but friendly LGHS senior. Now O'Brien has so many scholastic interests she's purposely avoiding any specific academic path for the present.
"I like to dabble in everything," the future West Valley College student says. "I have no idea what I'd like to do with my life as a career."
Four years ago, O'Brien wasn't thinking about the future at all. While she has always been artistic--singing, playing piano, designing--school seemed too full of busy work and routine. She says her future plans at that time included being a rock star or circus performer.
"I got really frustrated and felt like I wasn't learning anything in class, but really, now I've realized, it was all my attitude," the straight-A student says. "It's a complete change of everything I thought was important. I have different priorities and I feel a lot more capable and confident that whatever I want, I can achieve."
The turnaround came when O'Brien made a personal sacrifice, Taketa says. She had been happily singing with LGHS's renowned Jazz Purr choral group, but in her senior year she had to choose between the choir or a cross-disciplinary class offered the same period. She went with the combined English/economic/government class and has never looked back.
"It looks at so many different aspects of life and the connections between all things," she says. "I'll get assignments where I have to learn something, and it will get me excited about all these other things."
O'Brien's GPA went from a 2.4 to a 4.0 as her favorite class stimulated her interest in other classes. Now she says she has so many interests she can't even prioritize them. Foreign relations, photography, graphic art, reading, piano--the list goes on and on. Building a wooden deck on the back of her parents' house is among her most recent projects.
In her little free time, O'Brien says she enjoys helping her mother with her childcare business. The work has changed her attitude about having kids. The 17-year-old admits family--her parents and 13-year-old brother Michael--is a big reason she's staying around the first couple of years.
Eventually she hopes to finish college and travel, both of which she now feels confident she'll be able to do. "Now that I've received a lot of positive feedback, including this scholarship, and my parents are so happy, I want to keep going on the right track," she says.
Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
Kathlene Perry, a SHS senior, receives her scholarship award and certificate during a luncheon hosted by the Los Gatos Kiwanis Club.
Kathlene Perry
Kathlene Perry has always been a top athlete. The bookshelves in her father's Saratoga home are covered with trophies from mini-sox softball, Little League, volleyball and basketball. Today she plays third base and catcher on the Saratoga High School girl's softball team, which took second place in the league this year and is competing in CCS. However, she hasn't always been on the top academically.
During her sophomore and junior year at SHS, hanging out with friends and socializing took precedence over sports and school. She did not go to class as much as she needed to do, her grades went down and she did not play softball for two years, according to SHS academic advisor Nina Whitcanack. But Perry bounced back.
"This year she came back to school and she could see her goal," Whitcanack said. Perry started her senior year with more positive friendships, put more effort into her schoolwork and brought her grades up significantly. She played on the SHS softball team again, something she hadn't done since her freshman year, when she was voted Most Valuable Player.
"I've seen Kathlene meet the test many times," said Whitcanack, who has known Perry since middle school. "She is a very bright girl with a good head on her shoulders, and we are all so pleased for her that she is meeting her goals."
Perry said she was surprised to receive the scholarship. "I'm glad that my teachers and the staff at SHS recognized that I was really trying, and awarded me for my efforts," said Perry. She plans to use the scholarship at West Valley College next year, where she will continue her education, as well as her softball career.
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Los Gatos, California Since 1881
