Senior (Now Alumna) Blog: Jen Caplan

My top 5 memories at Beaverton High School…

Football Season: Dressing up on Friday nights and heading out to the football field is by far one of my favorite memories of high school. It was so amazing to feel all the school spirit and watch the team play, win or lose.

March for Our Lives: On March 24th, 2018, there were marches across the world to support the student in Parkland and help make our schools safer. Being apart of the March for Our Lives at Beaverton was such an eye-opening experience. It was amazing hearing students share stories and seeing students come together.

Star Day: After 4 years of hard work and preparing, May 1st finally came, where we got to wear our college gear to school and put up on our stars. It was such an exciting day with treats in the CCC! It was so awesome to see where all my classmates are going and everyone so excited for the future.

Dances: Dressing up and getting together to take pictures for all the dances was always such a fun time. Getting ready with all my friends was always so exciting and I love looking back at all the pictures and memories.

Marketing Trips: Having the opportunity to go to New York and Seattle with the Marketing Program was one of my favorite experiences. It really helped me get a feel for what I want to do in the future. We got to hear from amazing industry speakers, go to on-site visits, talk to people with very successful careers and explore the cities!

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Senior (Now Alumna) Blog: Anna Lorati

As my past four years at Beaverton High School come to an end, I can’t help but reflect on all of the memories that I have made here. I came into high school very nervous and shy, and have gained an immense amount of knowledge and confidence, and have built many relationships along the way. Beaverton has been like a second home to me, and I am so grateful for the time I have spent here.

Here are my top 5 memories!

Sporting Events

Getting dressed up for Friday Night Lights with my friends and losing our voices cheering for the Beavs were some of the best moments in these past four years. It truly was a special feeling rooting for BHS at all of the sporting events, and watching your friends compete against other schools.

Marketing Pathway

I have been involved in the marketing pathway since freshman year. I am so fortunate to have been able to find a passion of mine that I will be pursuing as a career, and receive all of the amazing opportunities that the pathway has provided me with, such as trips to Seattle, New York, and Chicago!

AP Human Geo

Not everyone is a huge fan of AP Human Geography, but that was by far my favorite academic class (and the only one I ever actually enjoyed). If you are deciding between that class and another humanities one, take AP Human Geo. It’s really interesting and Ms. Morgan made my junior year a ton more bearable.

Racquetball and Tennis

Some of my favorite times of high school have been during tennis and racquetball season. Getting to know all of my teammates and support them was a highlight. It was also a special experience to be able to compete in Districts for tennis, and win multiple State and National titles for racquetball.

Prom

Prom was by far one of the funnest nights of high school! Spending the night getting dressed up with your best friends, and dancing the night away with your class was a blast. Prom is definitely a night to remember.

Senior Blog: Ayaka Takeuchi

Coming to Beaverton as a freshman, it was hard for me to make friends. I had just moved to this country and was still learning English. Four years passed and I am surrounded by amazing friends and I am so glad I stuck around instead of giving up and moving back to Japan. My favorite memory here at BHS was my junior year, when I was kidnapped to be a Homecoming Princess. I remember I was tying up my last paragraph for an essay which was due in 10 minutes when screaming teenagers rushed into my room. It was such an memorable night and a week and I am so honored I got to be a part of the tradition.

Another great memory at BHS was Student Leadership. This class brought so many great memories and friends to me and joining this class was probably one of the best decisions I’ve made throughout my high school careers. We have retreats where students get to bond somewhere far from the school and I won’t even call this an exaggeration, it is the best weekend of your life. Okay maybe I exaggerated a little bit, but it’s still a phenomenal weekend. I am grateful that I was given the opportunity to work with my classmates to better the school and those helped me grow into the individual I am today.

Following up to one of the best decisions being made throughout the four years, I would like to mention my decision of joining the drama department my junior year. Without a doubt I can say that performing is my passion. I have been a fan of theatre for as long as I can remember, but I was hesitant to be a part of a production here since I was not confident with my language skills yet. Last year, I auditioned for the musical “Catch me if you can”, and even though 6 weeks of rehearsals was sometimes painful, the adrenaline rush I get being on stage, I had to do more shows! This years I was Eulalie Shinn for the musical “The Music Man” and Ms. Fleming for the musical “Heathers”. I met people that I can call my other family here in the department and I’m going to miss sharing the stage with such talented geniuses.

Following up to performing arts, concert choir also brought great challenges and joy to me. I love music and sometimes learning songs can be a pain. But there’s this moment when everything comes together and our voices sound indescribable and it makes it all worth it. I was a piano accompanist for the last two years and it gave me an opportunity to perform in different settings.

Final great memory at BHS has to be Prom. Seeing my friends all dressed up made me realize that the last big event of senior year is now only graduation and it made me feel nostalgic. We danced the night away… like literally. The night consisted of great and odd memories and I will cherish them for so long!

Thanks, Beaverton High School, for all the memories!!

Senior Blog: Carmel Larson

Making A Change Through Faith

My name is Carmel Larson, and I’m a senior at Beaverton High School! Next year, my cousin Sarvin and I will not be attending school but rather be doing a year of service! The year of service is an organized program that is run through the Baha’i Faith. This means that we will be committing full time to doing different community service activities throughout the area. There are options where people can travel around the state, the U.S., or even around the world. Although, my cousin and I have decided to stay in this cluster and serve.

I have been involved in the service activities that the Baha’i Faith offers for almost my whole life. One program that is offered is the junior youth spiritual empowerment program. This serves as a kind of mentorship program for middle schoolers. Youth become “animators” of a junior youth group with usually about 5-10 middle schoolers. The purpose of the group is to develop the junior youth’s capacity to be able to read the reality of their community and carry out practical action and service to better the community. I was a part of this program when I was in middle school and am now an animator of my own group! The junior youth spiritual empowerment program is an example of one of the activities I would be involved in during my year of service.

A couple of my very good friends, Saba and Sina, graduated a couple years ago and decided to commit some time to doing service as well. By watching them do this and seeing all the progress they’ve made, it inspired me to want to do the same thing. I hope for this year to help me to develop different life skills that I can use in my further education and my future profession. I also hope that my cousin and I will be able to provide sufficient service to the community.

Senior Blog: Zack Danner

Today is the last full day of school for the Class of 2018. Many of us have mixed emotions as we have our yearbooks signed, turn in our final high school essays, and complete our final presentations and tests at BHS. As a class we celebrate our accomplishments, reflect on what our legacy at BHS will be, and throw papers in the air to celebrate the completion of what for many of us has been the greatest four years of our lives. Today, I reflect on all the great moments of the past four years.

My top three favorite moments at BHS are taking home the 5th-place trophy at State last year with the boys’ basketball team. It was an amazing run to win the Metro League title and then to go beat Westview for the fourth time in the same season before taking home the 5th place trophy.

Another of my favorite memories was traveling to New York City with the Social Media Team. Putting the stuff you learn in the classroom into real world perspective is a great experience and I had a lot of fun learning outside of the classroom environment.

Senior Prom is a night to remember. For most it is a one time experience, so enjoy it. For me this was a senior memory for the books. You can ask a girl and go with them or you can go with friends, but you only get one Senior Prom, so enjoy it. Enjoy being with your high school friends for one last school dance.

I’ll conclude this blog with a piece of advice for every Beaverton student; current or incoming. Enjoy the time you have at Beaverton. Being a Beaver is a special thing, and the time goes by so fast. Join a club or a team and find a way to be involved. Go to dances because you can. Enjoy this time while it lasts, cause believe it or not, it doesn’t last long.

Senior Blog: Emily Carlson

My time at Beaverton High School began when I was a freshman, although it was only my second year living in Oregon. I spent most of my childhood growing up in North Carolina and moved to Oregon when I was in 8th grade. I went to Highland Park Middle School. I was really scared to start high school because most of my friends were going to Southridge. This meant I was going to have to make new friends all over again. It was through swim team, water polo, and health careers that I met most of my friends.

I think everyone’s experiences are different at BHS based on their interests and the activities they are involved in. For me, there were a few defining things that made my time at BHS one I will never forget. One of them was playing on the Water Polo team. There is something special about being a part of a team. I got to spend everyday during the fall with my crazy teammates and awesome coach. We always had a good time but, we never lost our competitive spirit. We travelled and played in many tournaments which helped us grow closer as a team. You may not even know BHS has a water polo team, but this is an awesome sport and you should look it up!

I was also a part of the Health Careers Pathway at BHS. This is a very challenging program that really helped me prepare for college and meet new people. My favorite part of the program was the time I got to spend on rotations shadowing different health professionals throughout our community. Through this program I was also given many opportunities to volunteer my time such as organizing a Red Cross blood drive, doing vision screenings at elementary schools, and conducting fundraisers. Beaverton High School not only gave me an education, but helped me grow as a person and gain real life experience. BHS will be missed. Go Beavs!

Senior Blog: Lana Jabeeti

My top 5 memories are:

Homecoming- Every start of the year, I get super excited for homecoming. It’s a great chance for all my friends and I to get dressed up, take cute pictures, and spend our night together dancing and having fun with everybody at our school. I have an amazing time every year and homecoming is a memory I love looking back at and also revisiting my pictures with all my close friends!

Friday Night Lights: There’s nothing I love more than going to football games every year. It’s so exciting to dress up for a certain theme and get to spend our night cheering on the football team. My friends and I always lose our voices by the end of the night and this is one way that really shows how amazing our student section is! I love seeing how much we support our team and how crazy loud we can get as well. One of my favorite nights was scoring a touchdown against Jesuit and how loud and hyped up we were after it. Cheering on our team was an amazing experience I’ll never forget.

Health Careers: My junior year of high school, I was accepted in to the health careers program and it’s been amazing ever since. I’ve done so many amazing things through this program such as volunteering with the community, shadowing doctors and nurses at hospitals and just spending time with the amazing teachers who help us get ready for our future. One of my absolute favorite memory from health careers was visiting St. Vincent’s and shadowing a post surgery nurse because this opportunity helped me decide what I wanted my future to look like.

Spending Time with my Class: Our school is so amazing at involving the entire community and I’m very thankful for that. One of my top favorite memory was junior year, going to Frenchman’s Bar with almost my entire junior class. We went during the last day of school and it was so great to see that we could all come together and have lots of fun outside of school. My favorite part was playing volleyball with all of my friends and also just spending time and relaxing with my class!

Putting up our Stars: Senior year finally arrived and it went by super quick. It was finally time for us to put up our stars and this moment was honestly so amazing for me and is one I’ll remember for a long time. This moment made me realize how quick we’ve come to finally graduating and I couldn’t be more excited. I put my star up with all of my close friends and I am so excited to see how our future will look like. Although I’ll miss everybody so much, this moment is one I’ll always remember and it showed me how close we are to our final step of high school.

Senior Blog: Reed Migaki

What I really loved about BHS is the community and friendships that I made through my 4 years. The thing I will miss most is the Friday night football games. Coming out and playing in front of the Beaverton community is something that I’ll never forget. I will also miss the brotherhoods that sports have given me. My favorite teachers that I will miss will be Ms. Ped and Mr. Kenis. Some advice I will give to the incoming freshmen next year is to not be afraid to go outside your comfort zone. Also, don’t be afraid to be the most spirited student at events. Some Prom advice I would give to next year’s seniors is to go all out and just have fun; you normally only have one opportunity to go. One of the best experiences I had at Beaverton would be our win against sunset to clinch a playoff spot. I played football all 4 years and baseball for 3. My final year I switched to lacrosse during the spring. I plan on going to PCC in the fall, and I’m planning on doing the EMT program and hopefully become a firefighter.

Senior Blog: Van Mathias

Coming in as a freshman, I was welcomed by some quality seniors that showed me the ropes. They passed down the tradition and value of what it means to swim for beaverton high school and shaped me into the leader I am today.  Now all of that being said, we were still a small program and one of the bottom feeders in the Metro League. Our best seniors were graduating and we needed our underclassmen to step up.

Fast forward two years, things really started to turn around during my junior year.  We were starting to get pretty good. Our program was starting to come full circle for the first time in decades. We were sending a relay to state for the first time in ages, and our girls team was climbing. That year I took home first in the 100 backstroke and 100 butterfly, setting an OSAA 6A record in the 100 butterfly as well. However, I had unfinished business and came back my senior year, claiming two more individual titles in the 200 IM and 100 butterfly, along with two more state records. At the end of the season, I also came away with 6 out of 8 school records, 5 of which happened this year.

 

All of my accomplishments throughout my high school career could not have been possible without my wonderful coach Judy Rusaw and my amazing teammates. They were always pushing me to be the best I could be, as a swimmer and as a person. I am extremely lucky to have been part of this program, and very humbled to be able to share my success with THE Beaverton High School.

I am very excited to continue my swimming career at Indiana University in the fall and do big things in the future.  GO HOOSIERS!

Senior Blog: Sonny Bonillas

Football has always been my favorite sport. I love to watch, I love to analyze, and I absolutely love to play. One of my dreams that I’ve had ever since I was a kid was to play college football. I knew that that did not come easy, but I was willing to put in the work to fulfill my lifelong dream. My junior and senior seasons were spent in the weight room and on the field trying to get stronger and faster to increase my chances to play at the next level.

When the season started everything was going good and I was succeeding but then half way through the season I suffered from a season ending leg injury. In my mind I thought that I was done, I thought I would never play another down of football again, but, my teammates and coaches wouldn’t let me feel sorry for myself. Every single person on my team helped me keep my head high and focus on coaching the younger players.

After the season had ended and the all league awards were released I was surprised to see my name pop up not once, but twice winning 2nd-Team All-Metro Offensive Lineman and 3rd Team All-Metro Punter. A couple weeks after that a JUCO in Northern California named the College of the Siskiyous happened to like what they saw and told me that I would be a great addition to their defense. It is crazy for me to think that my childhood dream is about to come true but it definitely isn’t a surprise that this is happening, I put in the work, and it payed off.