Year In The Life: Willamette Academy

The members of Willamette Academy’s Class of 2007 already walked in caps and gowns at their high school graduation ceremonies. But Saturday was their opportunity to mark the moment with their second family, the academy students and teachers they had become so close to over the past five years.

By hosting their own graduation ceremony, Willamette Academy leaders were able to send off the seniors in a special way and, most important, let them know how proud everyone feels about them reaching this accomplishment.

Friends and family members, some toting celebratory balloons, gathered in Hudson Hall for the occasion. Red programs listed the names of the 21 graduates, scholarships they received and the names of the colleges where all but three of them are heading in the fall — Portland State University, Chemeketa Community College, Oregon State University, Linfield College, Portland Community College, Western Oregon University and, of course, Willamette.

Lupe Jeronimo addressed the group, recalling some of the memories they shared during their years with the academy. “My classmates became my brothers and sisters, and my teachers became like my parents,” he said. “No matter where our separate paths take us, we’ll always be the Willamette Academy Class of 2007.”

Although the academy is saying goodbye to these students, they will not be forgotten. As interim Executive Director Will Bragg told them, “I know you will be doing great things. I have no doubt about that. We just hope that you guys fulfill your dreams.”

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Yesterday I had another meeting with Lupe Jeronimo, a senior I first met back in July. We caught up on how he’d been doing over the past year and where he was heading from here.

One word kept coming to my mind as we talked: perseverance. As I noted previously in this blog, Lupe had some tough family issues to overcome, including uncles involved with gangs. But Lupe is highly involved in activities in school, is poised to graduate and hopes to become the first in his family to obtain a college degree. He received conditional admission to Willamette, meaning he has to prove himself at another school for a year before he can attend this university. But he pushed through that, too — vowing to do well at Western Oregon University and come back to Willamette.

Lupe is well respected among the Willamette Academy students, and I can see why — he strives to do well, doesn’t give up easily and keeps in mind the example he sets for the younger students coming up behind him.

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The school year is hitting the downhill stretch, and you can see it in Maya Ramsey’s face.

Yesterday I met with Maya, a Willamette Academy senior I’d been tracking since last summer, to catch up and find out how she was doing. Maya is the picture of the busy, high-achieving student. She’s involved in a multitude of extracurricular activities, taking rigorous courses, maintaining a high GPA — all while contemplating her next step in life and trying to fight off the anxiety that comes with senioritis.

So she looked a bit weary when we met. But at the same time, she was excited about the fun parts of her senior year — the most recent was being crowned queen at a school pageant — and about finishing high school. Maya isn’t travelling far after graduation. She was accepted at Willamette (along with two other schools), and she plans to enroll here as a freshman in the fall.

As we approach the end of the school year, it’s exciting to see what’s happening to the seniors like Maya. I first met these students last summer, when the thought of being a senior was brand new and graduation day was still an eternity away. Now it’s almost here, and I’m starting to see what will become of these students, what important choices they are making for their futures. It’s been a long five years since these seniors started the program, and now the end is so close they can almost taste it.

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A dense fog settled across the Willamette Valley on Saturday morning, seeming to add to the sleepiness of the Willamette Academy students who gathered at the law school.

They were checking in for one of their monthly Saturday sessions. This one was their first under a newly revised format, one that had them attending academic sessions all morning before pursuing more artistic activities in the afternoon.

Students had signed up for academic sessions in subjects in which they felt they needed help. They met in various locations in the Collins and Olin science centers. In one room, Algebra 2 students were testing a theory that people’s arm spans are the same length as their heights, and then graphing the results. In Biology, a small group was labeling the parts of an animal cell. Geometry students were trying to solve a logic puzzle in a different room.

As one might expect on a Saturday morning, or any morning for that matter, some of the students struggled to keep their eyes open. Others enthusiastically participated in discussion. These Saturday sessions are meant to supplement the students’ academic activities at their school, another way to keep them focused on learning. It also serves another important purpose — the continued building of a community of support.

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It had been awhile since I checked in with the Willamette Academy students, so last night, I decided to drop by for their after-school study hall. Every weekday during the school year, the academy has its doors open for the students to come in, work on homework together and get help if needed from Willamette student academic mentors.

This was a relatively quiet evening at the study hall — I was told that the previous night had been packed — but still I could see the benefits of the program. I saw several students I had met during the summer camps, except now they were hunched over math books, trying to solve word problems. One eighth-grader told me he hops on the bus almost every day after school to come to the study hall because it gives him a quieter place to work. “At home, there’s lots of distractions like TV and video games,” he said.

The summer camps are a lot of fun for the students and a great way to get them engaged in learning. But then what happens to them when they go back to school and get back into their regular routine, away from the support of academy mentors and teachers? The academy staff knows that supporting these students during the regular school year is just as important. Hence the study halls every weekday, with staff and University students at the ready.

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