The same was true for his classmate, senior Doug Dionne. For both students Willow Glen High School wasn't just a school, it was a tradition where their grandmothers and mothers graduated, as well as some of their aunts, uncles and siblings.

And with the graduation of her grandson Alex, Sally (Levy) Ravel, 69, reflects on her high school experience. Like Dionne's grandmother, she was in the first Willow Glen High School graduating class—the class of 1951.

Ravel's parents moved to the area in 1929. But there was no high school or junior high school in the area at the time, so she enrolled in Lincoln High School. She spent her sophomore and junior year there and then transferred to Willow Glen for her senior year when the campus was built in 1950.

"It was very exciting coming home to Willow Glen," she says about attending the new high school. "Our first year we decided the school colors and what the mascot would be. We got to call all the shots."

They decided on red and gold and chose the rams because all the other animals were already taken, she says with a laugh.

During the school's first year there was also no landscaping and students had to walk through the mud, but it was worth it because the class was a close-knit group, she says.

Since her graduating class only spent one school year there, Ravel attends reunions for both Willow Glen and Lincoln high schools.

When her daughter Teri (Ravel) Kane, 46, followed in her mother's footsteps and joined the school's yearbook staff, she immediately knew the book's theme: a look into the past.

Because it was the school's 25th anniversary—she was in the class of 1975—Kane borrowed photographs from her mother's yearbook to make the point that times change, but high school is always a special time in a person's life.

Ravel says the school has changed very little since she went there 52 years ago. Although there were no computers then and students used to wear saddle shoes and eat at drive-in restaurants, the school's education is still "excellent," she says.

Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer How Things Change: Alex Kane (left), a 2003 Willow Glen High School graduate and his mother Teri (Ravel) Kane, who graduated in 1975, look through Sally (Levy) Ravel's yearbook. Sally, Alex's grandmother was a member of the first graduating class in 1951.

"One of the best things about of growing up here, and returning to raise my kids here, is the sense of continuity and community that I am fortunate to have," she says. "Willow Glen is a small town in a big city."

That was also appealing for Dionne, 18. One of the three valedictorians this year, he chose to attend Chapman University in Southern California next fall because he says, "It has the same small-town feeling as Willow Glen."

He chose Willow Glen High School over a private school because, he said, it gave him an equivalent education, and because his brother was going to the school.

"If you look at the list, a lot of students got into great colleges," he says. "At least five of us got into UCLA. You get out what you put in and you just have to take classes that challenge you."

He was accepted to UCLA and UC­Santa Barbara but chose a university with smaller classes, and greater athletic opportunities.

The senior class was accepted into a number of colleges, including Stanford, all the schools in the California University system and many of the California State University schools, says assistant principal Carmen Mahood.

Although Dionne received straight A's throughout his four years in high school, he also found time to play on the football, basketball and baseball teams.

Fellow valedictorian Danny Saucedo, 18, was also on the mock trial team with Dionne.

"Mock trial was different than sports because you compete more intellectually than physically," says Dionne, who will play football and baseball in college.

Saucedo, who will attend UC-Berkley next fall, says that although he studied a lot for advanced placement classes, he found time to juggle an active social life.

And these valedictorians say achieving success was rooted in a desire to make their parents proud.

Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer Making A Mark: This year's Willow Glen High School Class of 2003 valedictorians (from left) Doug Dionne, Danny Saucedo and Caitlin Hannon say the class was close and supportive of each other. This year 208 students graduated from the high school.

Hannon transferred to Willow Glen High School from Saint Francis High School in Mountain View her sophomore year. She didn't know anyone but quickly made friends, her mother, Terry Hannon, says.

"I'm really glad I transferred because it was a better fit for me," Caitlin says. "I decided not to take [advanced placement] classes because it was too stressful but I still feel I got a really good education."

She will major in art at San José State University and plans to become an interior designer.

First-year Willow Glen High School principal Elaine Farace, who graduated in the school's class of 1964, says every student graduating this year should be proud of their accomplishments.

Although the physical appearance of the campus has stayed similar, the requirements to graduate have become stiffer, she says.

In the San Jose Unified School District, students are now required to complete 240 credits, take six classes a day and graduate with three years of science and math, four years English and two years of a foreign language.

When Farace went to the school the high school was only grades 10 through 12 but the graduating class was much larger, 500 students. This year's Class of 2003 graduated 280 students.

"The whole district has seen a drop in enrollment because of people losing their jobs and moving out of the area," she says.

There were also fewer high schools in the area then, Farace says. When she graduated the only high school to the south was Pioneer High School. And although there was Lincoln High School, Leland and Gunderson high schools were yet to be built.

But Kane says her children have received a stronger education compared to her years as a student at the high school. Her daughter, Emily, graduated in 2000.

"I went there just after the Vietnam War and the emphasis was on alternative learning," she says. "There were no [advanced placement] classes. It is much more structured now. But I still went to a good college."

The other significant difference was the type of classes offered during Kane's years, as a student in the 1970s. Back then drafting classes were offered and sports programs for girls were limited and not as popular, she says.

"It was before Title IX so girls were not encouraged to do sports as much as now," says Kane, who played tennis during high school but wasn't on the high school's tennis team. She wanted to participate in other sports but says, "If a girl was a natural athlete on the field she was encouraged to do sports but not otherwise."

But despite these minor setbacks, one of the advantages to attending a neighborhood school is being able to walk rather than drive or take a bus, admits Kane.

Kane says she wanted her children to be part of the community and make friends by walking through the neighborhood to school.

She thinks so highly of the school that she started an incoming freshman welcome night, which was held at the end of the school year. This was the first year of the orientation, where prospective students and parents could learn about the school's academics and activities. There were representatives from the parent and booster clubs as well as coaches from sports teams.

"This way they don't have to worry all summer about which school to attend," says Kane, a landscape architect. "They could also learn about the fun things like the father-daughter dinner dance."

That was an activity she attended with her father and recently went to with her son. Her son Alex will attend the University of Arizona next fall to study studio arts. He wants to find a job in advertising.

"His dream is to make commercials for Super Bowl Sunday," Teri says.

Like his family members, Alex was active in school. He was co-captain of the swimming and water polo teams and started a gourmet-cooking club where students brought recipes into school to share with each other.

His grandmother, Sally Ravel who attended UC-Berkley and is now a speech therapist, says she is proud of him and will miss him when he leaves for college in a few months.

But although many students might end up moving hundreds or even thousands of miles away, these graduating seniors and administrators say they won't forget the unique Class of 2003.

"This class really wants the best for each other and are so supportive of each other's success," Mahood says. "Some are so ambitious they exceeded the required community service hours."

This class also leaves behind its mark by laying a foundation for various newly created programs, including peer tutoring and senior-freshman buddy get-togethers, says assistant principal of activities Tina VanLaarhoven.

What sets them apart is rather than "having one icon" like previous classes, this class has "talents spread out more evenly throughout the entire class," graduate Saucedo says.

"There aren't any sports stars or academic whizzes but I predict everyone will do well in life," he says.

Dionne says there were no cliques, everyone got along with each other.

"What I love about our class was shown during the awards night when everyone gave genuine support for everyone else," he says. "There were genuine friendships in the crowd. People yelled nicknames when people got awards, which showed there were personal connections within the class."