Advertise | About Us | My Account | Log In

 

Great Graduates

Fifteen Success Stories from Oakland Schools

High school seniors do amazing things. For this article on outstanding Oakland high school seniors, we spent a month scouring school Web sites, prodding nonprofit contacts and querying Oakland principals, teachers, counselors and other outreach program directors, asking them to tell us who makes the biggest splash in their respective ponds.

The 15 students we ultimately selected reveal Oakland's vibrant tapestry of culture and history. These students come from the flatlands and hills, charter schools and home schools, public and private schools. They are smart, with many boasting grade point averages well above 4.0; they are artists, athletes, entrepreneurs, dancers and community organizers. A few have faced and overcome formidable obstacles.

The common denominator is that each one is driven to better the world. They work hard to achieve the remarkable on a daily basis, and they cultivate their passions. Thanks to these great graduates, excellence has become the new average.

Ismael Ahmad
College: Howard
Career Choice: Engineer/Journalist

Ismael Ahmad wanted to leave future MetWest High School students with a resource to help them navigate complex issues. "The concept of debate holds a lot of skills--critical thinking, for example--that can be applied to writing or speech," says Ahmad, who centered his senior project on creating a debate team. "It's a nice thing to give to the school."

In the role of leading and educating debaters, he stands before his peers every Friday and forces himself beyond his comfort level. "I'd rather work alone," concedes Ahmad. "I was going from that to leading a group. It's challenging. Different." One of the first school debates coincided with the discussion over clemency for Tookie Williams. "It created a lot of discussion in the school," says Ahmad, who orchestrated a rousing town hall presentation on the topic before debate students protested at San Quentin.

When he's not behind a lectern, Ahmad is in the pool competing for the Black Star Line All-Star Swim Team, a traveling team that races nationwide to raise awareness about black swimmers. As part of a team fundraising effort, Ahmad swam more than 90 laps to raise money for the national competition in Washington, D.C.

Perla Cantu
College: Stanford University
Career Choice: Pediatrician

Perla Cantu, a senior at MetWest High School, spends long hours in hospitals and clinics in Oakland, but she's not ill; she's just passionate about health care. Thanks to the school's innovative internship program, Cantu has been able to spend two days a week with anesthesiologists, nurses and doctors, rotating through departments at Children's Hospital Oakland. "I was observing minor surgeries," says Cantu. "I loved it, oh, my goodness. A 16-year-old Latina girl in there asking questions of the professionals: 'How do you know which tissue to grab? How does the hernia work; why is it there? Why do you have to remove it?' " This much exposure to blood, tissue and ligaments might weaken a less dedicated teenager's resolve. Not Cantu. "I didn't squirm. I know it's for me."

Before donning scrubs, Cantu interned with a health educator at the Clinica Alta Vista Teen, a teen clinic in Fruitvale. "I was teaching girls my age and older about contraception options, side effects and pregnancy tests," says Cantu. "All these girls were from my community; I knew where they came from."

During another internship, Cantu informed her peers about health issues and the value of striving for a good education. Speaking to middle school students at Roosevelt Middle school, Cantu gave anti-tobacco and nutrition presentations. "I want people to think when they see me: 'education and school--it's a cool thing,' " says Cantu.

Now working with a design team coach who is developing Ruth International Academy, a middle school, Cantu hopes to break the cycle of disdain for learning that begins in some middle schools, where good grades can diminish social status. "During middle school, I was teased a lot about the way I handled school: I always turned in assignments on time, did extra credit," says Cantu. "Of course, I'm committing to this design project. It's an opportunity for me to make a change. I can't let it slip through my fingers."

Ariel Frost
College: Princeton University
Career Choice: Reconstructive Surgeon

People are usually shocked when they hear Ariel Frost scream. "I have a loud voice for my size," admits the College Preparatory School senior.

As coxswain of the Oakland Strokes, Frost calls out the stroke count, steers the boat and encourages the rowers. Known as "a pint-sized energy ball with a great voice," Frost barely needs the microphone strapped to her head to be heard over the sound of the oars slapping the water.

Selected for the U.S. Junior National Team, she spent 21/2 months in the Olympic Training Center in Lake Placid, N.Y. Facing a 4:30 a.m. wake-up call and three daily practices, Frost trained with the best high school athletes in the nation, ultimately taking fourth place at the Junior World Rowing Championships in Brandenburg, Germany.

"It was 21/2 months of training to do six minutes of racing," says Frost. "I learned valuable lessons about making quick decisions."

Back at College Prep, her crew practices 24 hours or more a week. At home, after afternoon practice on the Oakland estuary, Frost powers through 21/2 hours of homework. She's convinced her training on the water helps with the rigorous science program she's selected. "When choosing a paper topic or independent study, I make a firm decision and run with it. If you delay, you're making things worse."

Balancing crew with her academic schedule can be demanding. "But what I'm doing now will make things easier in the future," she says. Recruited for rowing by Princeton, Frost plans a career in reconstructive surgery. "I've always had a general interest in the fields of medicine where the patients can see the results."

Rhummanee Hang
College: Northwestern University
Career Choice: History Teacher

Rhummanee Hang, a senior at Oakland Technical School, demonstrates how dancing brings out the inner warrior.

"You have to be aggressive to be on stage," says Rhummanee Hang, a longtime dancer. "I still am kind of shy, but it's a different story when I get on stage." For the past five years, Hang, a hip-hop and aerial dancer, choreographer and poet, has performed around the Bay Area with Destiny Arts, a company that uses martial arts, theater and dance to teach violence prevention to at-risk youth. "We're creating something for the stage and having a message about social change," says Hang.

Each year's Youth Performance is unique, written collaboratively by Hang and her partners. "The youth comes up with whatever is important to us," says Hang, noting that this year's performance addressed pressing social issues. "There's a lot of youth selling drugs, or their bodies, to get money," says Hang. "That is a problem."

Since she began using dance and theater arts to encourage her peers to think more critically, Hang has shed the bulk of her shyness, becoming a leader at school and beyond. President of the Sports Medicine Club, Hang patches up players who get hurt during a game. Her help extends from the playing field to children in distant countries. "I started Project SAVE, Supporting AIDS Victims Everywhere," says Hang. "Once I started to get more involved, leadership starting to become easier," says Hang. "I evolved into a leader."

Evelyn Herrera
College: Columbia University
Career Choice: Criminal Defender

The walls of Oakland Unity High School regularly exhibit Evelyn Herrera's paintings and linoleum prints. "I like to draw messages about indigenous people," says the soft-spoken senior. "I just drew this piece on genocide. This pregnant woman, in her belly, instead of a baby, there was a map of Peru ... It represented the women that became sterile because of birth control given to them a few years ago."

At 9, Herrera immigrated to Oakland from Veracruz with her family and a deep sense of history. "Aztec and Mayan ancestors worked really hard for us to know about them. Although colonizers destroyed a lot, the people resisted by practicing traditions. Languages, dialects, pyramids, costumes-- we still have a lot of it."

No matter how much the staff and students may appreciate her talent, Herrera insists that her artwork takes a backseat to her political activism. "Art is very political; it gets out messages," says Herrera. "But that's not helping people. You don't see the results. I want to see that I'm actually helping someone."

Herrera has a head start on helping. She's been an activist since the ninth grade and has recently caught the attention of Amnesty International, which chose her to be one of its six national interns for 2006.

Herrera also enjoys teaching Latin dance to middle school students. In addition to the arts and activism, this outstanding senior earns consistently high grades. "My parents didn't finish high school," says Herrera. "I want them be to proud of me and to see that their dream is becoming a reality."

Zhen Huang
College: UC Berkeley
Career Choice: Engineer

When Zhen Huang graduates from Oakland High School, it will be with high honors. But, according to Kevin Jordan, an environmental science teacher at Oakland High, "Zhen was ready for college two years ago."

Whereas most seniors take two or three Advanced Placement classes in a term, Zhen signed up for six. "I've never seen a student go after his education like Zhen has," says Jordan. "He gobbles everything up. He's taking every hard class he can get his hands on, everything this school has to offer."

Huang immigrated to Oakland in the second grade, speaking only Cantonese. "I came here at 9 from Guanzhong, China," remembers Huang. "It was really hard for me to learn English. The teacher gave me vocabulary words, and I would work really hard to remember them, to make new friends." Once Huang learned English, the academics came easier, though with a good deal of conscientious effort. "I persevered in my studies," says Huang of his middle school experience, "and graduated as valedictorian."

Now at Oakland High, it's the heavy load of advanced science and math classes that challenge this hardworking immigrant. "I come home and do homework for four hours straight," says Huang. The world of science opened up for Huang during an internship at the Environmental Protection Agency. "I always liked science, but the internship confirmed that I loved science," says Huang, who participated in lab work, investigating the potential toxicity of samples.

While Huang juggles strenuous studies with a job tutoring fifth graders, his mother toils away in a restaurant, twelve hours a day, six days a week. "Seeing her work makes me more motivated, more focused in school," says Huang. "I want to succeed so I can buy her a house so she doesn't have to work anymore."

Neel Lalchandani
College: University of Pennsylvania
Career Choice: Undecided

With a 4.17 GPA and a series of awards for tennis and soccer at Head Royce, Neel Lalchandani makes it look easy to thrive as a scholar/ athlete. "Sports is actually a good outlet after long day of school," says Lalchandani, who is headed to Penn in the fall. "I try and start earlier and get my work done as soon as possible and manage my time well. I focus on being efficient."

It's not just active participation that intrigues this soccer midfielder; Lalchandani goes to great lengths to observe as many games as possible. "I'm a sports enthusiast. After graduation, I'll be going to watch the World Cup in Germany and then go backpacking with friends for four months."

Looking back on all the hard work of high school, Lalchandani is proud of his three years working on the yearbook, tutoring students in math and teaching tennis to youngsters. When it comes down to it, though, he's "most proud of getting into Penn. There's a lot of pressure about getting into college. I had to prepare all [these] other essays in case I didn't get into Penn, and balance that with my school load and soccer."

Although Lalchandani hasn't pinpointed his career, he does know what he loves. "I want to apply my academic background to something practical. I like combining history and math. It's an interesting relationship that is overlooked."

That means looking into intriguing roles, like the ones that creep up in the political movies he passionately discusses.

"The roles of economics in government, the role of capitalism and democracy; [that's] not so much pursued in high school. I'm looking forward to interdisciplinary studies."

Rafaella Lima
College: Brown University
Career Choice: United Nations Ambassador

This senior at Bishop O'Dowd High School has experienced more of the world in her 18 short years than many adults. Raised in Cairo by Portuguese parents, Rafaella Lima moves fluidly among cultures and has easily added French and Italian to her native English and Portuguese.

"Egypt is a stressful country to live in, but it was so worth growing up there," says Lima, remembering the many trips she took with her family. "I can't believe that I've been so lucky to see all those places."

Lima adapted gracefully to the thrilling challenges of international living, and it turns out that she is adept at handling life's less pleasant trials as well. Twice in four years Lima was confronted with two separate kinds of cancer. "Right after the seventh grade in Cairo, on the way to the U.S., I was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma," says Lima. "I ended up staying in Oakland and having six rounds of chemotherapy."

She made it through the intensive treatment far away from family and friends. Her sophomore year, Lima's family moved to Oakland; two years later doctors discovered a small tumor in her knee. "I got a new type of cancer this year: Ewing Sarcoma. It was hard to reconcile at the beginning, but it's hard not to be happy when I can still see my friends and go to school. I know it's going to be OK."

Despite the challenges of cancer and the treatments, Lima maintains a 4.56 GPA, a close network of friends and a wide range of interests from hip-hop and drama to pondering philosophy.

"There's always going to be that one thing that you don't have," says this outstanding senior, "but you can be happy anyway." Some t ime s it's only your mother who can set you straight. But when she's on the other side of the globe in Yemen, her good advice can be hard to hear.

AJ Mohammed
College: UC (by way of community college)
Career Choice: Pediatrician

Abdullah Mohammed, AJ to his friends, was working full time in his dad's convenience store, treating school as a place to relax. "Working at my dad's store for so long, mentally I thought I'd be working in a liquor store if I graduate or not," says Mohammed, a student at Life Academy.

Although smart and hardworking (Mohammed is fluent in English and Arabic, and worked simultaneously at the store, a restaurant and a side business), Mohammed had atrocious grades-his GPA tanked at .88. "When I went to school, it was a fun place to chill; [I was] kicking it with my friends." And then his mother came back from Yemen.

"She showed me examples of my cousins," remembers Mohammed. "They're prisoners in the [family] liquor store [business]." Mohammed gave serious consideration to his future: "Most of the people come here to change their lives, but they end up having a hard life, having low wages in the store," says Mohammed. "That's not for me."

By the middle of his senior year, Mohammed catapulted his GPA to 3.84. "This year I stayed focused [and tried] to take every bit of knowledge that the teacher tells me and to use it."

He extended his newfound discovery of the value of education to his friends. "I'd tell them that school is important," says Mohammed. "It's not the industrial age. Education is important to succeed."

Cutting back his hours at the corner store and elsewhere to accommodate his studies, Mohammed now strives for a future in international medicine. "I want to open a clinic in Yemen," says Mohammed. "Work hard, and anything can happen."

Edward Moreno
College: Stanford University
Career Choice: Genetic Engineering

Edward Moreno stands out enough by being valedictorian of his University Preparatory Charter Academy class. But he also accomplishes a feat that 99 percent of the population will never experience firsthand. Since 10th grade, this outstanding senior has been running the Los Angeles Marathon.

Moreno's commitment to the challenge began as a drastic response to a dramatic weight gain his freshman year. "I was only eating McDonalds, and I gained 30 pounds in one year. I wanted to be healthy. A lot of people in my family are diabetic, and I wanted to avoid that."

The seismic shift in lifestyle impacted the rest of his family--his sister and dad now run daily, too--and the way he strides through life. "I can use the lessons I learn in running for the rest of life," says Moreno. "I train on my own and have to know how to stay focused and maintain a schedule."

There's no track at school, so Moreno gets creative with budgeting his time and training--sometimes jogging around Lake Merritt after a physics class at Laney College or running from Berkeley to Hayward and back on the weekends.

Moreno's other interests include competing in swim meets, spending time with his extended family and taking care of the menagerie of animals--fish, hamsters, dogs and cats--at home. Moreno also tutors other U Prep students in Advanced Placement biology. His fascination in science was fueled by experiences with MESA, or Math Engineering Science Achievement, where he undertook a multitude of science experiments. "Bio medical [and] genetic engineering have the answers to everything," says Moreno. "Science in general has the explanation to everything. Being able to manipulate genetic code is really exciting."

Casey Oto
College: New York University
Career Choice: Photographer

Ask Head Royce senior Casey Oto what she'll major in, and she'll tell you it depends.

This multi-talented senior from Head Royce applied to 10 top colleges, varying her field of study on her applications to coincide with each school's strongest program. "It's a lot more difficult to apply different interests of life," admits Oto, who's dead-set on exploring many different fields, among them international relations, environmental science, and photography and imagery.

"Trying new things is kind of a risk," says Oto, adding that when she feels the pull of something new, "I trust myself to do the right thing."

Fortified with self-confidence, she tends as many intellectual and artistic impulses as possible. "I transferred my basement into a photography studio and did senior portraits for the yearbook. I developed the film, printed images," says Oto. "I'm starting to feel like an artist."

Oto's basement was not the only space transformed for the better. A storage room at the Lincoln Child Center is now a library, thanks to her tireless efforts. "Lincoln is a care center for mentally damaged children from really broken homes. Some of them are orphans," Oto says. "I learned that all the students were lacking in basic needs. This was right across the street and I had no idea. I spent freshman year cleaning out a dirty and stinky basement, got shelves put in, called a local carpet company and had them donate 10x10 carpet."

Recently honored by the Woman's Hall of Fame for this community service, Oto feels proud of the library she helped create. "People are using it. There are 3,000 books collected over four years."

Kunal Raygor
College: Harvard University
Career Choice: Brain Surgeon

There's such a lack of blood," says Kunal Raygor, a senior at College Preparatory School, referring to daily life in today's hospitals.

"Blood is always necessary for transfusions and other important surgeries," says Raygor, who spearheaded a blood drive for an Eagle Scout project and organized two major blood drives at his school with the Red Cross. "I was really motivated to keep helping out in that field."

"Both my parents are physicians--a doctor and a brain surgeon," says Raygor, whose fascination with the mechanics of medicine was ignited in a summer biology program at the Center for Talented Youth. "I became interested in neural biology," he says. "I'm really interested in different parts of the brain and the spine."

Sponsored by John Hopkins University, Raygor immersed himself in biology for three weeks. "We did labs, dissections of fetal pigs. I was interested in getting the brain out intact, with the eyes and everything. It's a little bit gruesome, but I'm really fascinated by the way that the individual neuron cells work and the way that different chemical hormones are transmitted into nerve cells. It's really intriguing; it's so complex and so interesting."

Most recently, Raygor worked with a post-doctoral fellow at the University of California Medical Center. "That was one of the best experiences," remembers Raygor. "We tried to see if the movement of white blood cells was affected by a certain protein. What they're hoping to do is to examine if this affected tumor growth, which known to occur with that protein."

Joanna Smith
College: "Somewhere in Minnesota"
Career Choice: Elementary School Teacher

It was shortly after the 100th hour of volunteering that Joanna Smith received the President's Volunteer Service Award. Like many schools, Bishop O'Dowd High School requires students to practice some community service. But for Smith, who earned the award two years straight, giving time to those who need it has become second nature, not a class requirement.

"I've been volunteering since I was a little kid," says Smith. "I really loved the feeling that I made a difference."

While spending summers in Minnesota, Smith helped out at Camphill Village, a community where people of mixed abilities support themselves through farming and crafts. During the rest of the year closer to home, Smith attends to the elderly in nursing homes, takes care of a disabled adult in the neighborhood or helps Dharma Publishing with its ongoing Tibetan prayer book project.

Hundreds of hours of volunteering aside, Smith also holds a position on the school newspaper and yearbook. How does she manage it all? "My friends call me a procrastinator hater," says Smith. "I have to do my homework as soon as I get home." Her strategy has paid off: Smith boasts a GPA of 4.23.

Smith credits some of her burgeoning sense of confidence to the positive feedback she's gotten from working with the disabled. In fact, Smith so enthusiastically enjoyed the Camphill experience that she plans on attending college "somewhere in Minnesota" just to continue the adventure of giving to others. "I'm adamant on making a difference. I don't want to just sit back and watch, but get my hands dirty."

Chatara Smothers
College: Chabot College
Career Choice: Psychologist

Chatara Smothers had the wrong idea about Dewey Academy.

"They said it's for kids that are doing bad things," she says. Smothers attended three high schools in four years, landing as a senior at Dewey, an alternative continuation high school, where she finally received the help and focus she needed to get ahead.

"My freshman and sophomore year, I had a .67--I passed P.E. and that's it," she says. Now, that's all changed, and she has earned a 3.5 GPA and is in contention for scholarships and study-abroad programs. Additionally, she earned her school's second highest score on the California High School Exit Exam.

Today Smothers exudes a cheery confidence about her future. She attributes her hard-earned success to hard work, high expectations and a supportive environment. "When I got to Dewey, it's a whole new outlook on life," says Smothers. "The teachers were awesome. They give you the help you need. They want me to graduate."

When Smothers describes her new life, it's with enthusiasm. "There are days when I'm so excited. This is so much fun," says Smothers. "I like doing things. I love sports--I play basketball and volleyball-- writing poems, hanging out with my friends, reading the Bible, acting."

Success at school is just one of the highlights she revels in. She works at the Oakland Unified School District and attends church often, leading Bible study and setting up activities for the youth group.

Busy raising money for the study-abroad program and saving for a car to get her to college, Smothers eagerly holds the reins to her future. "I want the responsibility," Smother says. "I almost gave up, and I almost lost a great opportunity."

Alex Sung
College: Wheaton College
Career Choice: Documentary Filmmaker

Since the first grade, Alex Sung has been studying from home, though much of his learning takes place by interacting with the outside world.

"When I was younger I did a lot more field trips, trips that I might not have gone on in schools," he says. "With homeschooling, you're able to pursue the things you really want to do," he says.

It takes a certain kind of student to thrive with homeschooling. "If you always need people around you, it might be tough," admits Sung, who's expecting to graduate with a 4.21 GPA. "I have a good balance." Most of Sung's early schooling took place at home with his mother; online classes and courses at community colleges increased when he started high school. A typical week meant meeting with other students with the Bay Area School for Independent Study. "When I first started we would meet twice a week and have class. We'd study one day, go to park and play different games."

Since the ninth grade, Sung's expanded his education by teaching environmental science to visitors at the Chabot Space and Science Center and attending classes at local community colleges. "I started taking classes at Laney, Merritt and Vista. Some credits go toward high school. Some credits that I did not need for high school went to college."

Sung pursues his interest in filmmaking by taking college classes in video production. On a recent field trip to Ardenwood in Fremont, Sung discovered the next subject he'd like to document. "I'm interested in telling about Monarch butterflies. They have an interesting birth cycle. Every fifth generation lives eight months, much longer than the usual life of six weeks."