High school graduates look toward next chapter

Three graduates from three Petaluma high schools embark on decidedly different paths, hopeful that they will lead to success.|

This weekend’s graduation ceremonies bring down the curtain on a 12-year educational production for the high school Class of 2015, but it is really only the end of Act 1. Whether it is on to junior college, a four-year university, a trade school, the military or training at a new job, many Petaluma area high school graduates will continue their education.

Three students from three different Petaluma high schools are headed in different directions. But for each, the road seems pointed toward success.

Joey Wertz, St. Vincent de Paul High School

High School can be difficult, especially for students carrying a load of difficult academic classes and competing for entrance into top colleges and universities, but it is not brain surgery. However, for graduating St. Vincent de Paul High School senior Joey Wertz, that is exactly what he hopes high school will prepare him for.

The Harvard University-bound Wertz plans on some day being a brain surgeon, or perhaps a neurosurgeon. Even before he graduates on Sunday, he has critical care experience, volunteering in the emergency room at Petaluma Valley Hospital. The 18-year-old began volunteering at the hospital in his junior year and, when he turned 17, he was able to help in the emergency department. He specifically requested to work on Saturday nights when the department was likely to be the busiest.

“I wanted to be exposed to critical care,” Wertz says. “I wanted to make sure being a doctor was what I wanted. Working at the hospital confirmed that was what I wanted to do. I met a lot of great people on the staff and the patients. Working at the hospital is one of the top reasons I want to pursue medicine. It was really inspirational.”

Although Wertz has a 4.47 grade point average and a long list of extra-curricular activities that include captaining Relay for Life teams and serving as Student Body President, he wasn’t initially accepted into Harvard, but was placed on a waiting list.

As he made alternative plans, he got the good news that he had been granted admission.

“I was more than excited,” he says. “It seems surreal. To think I will be going to a college known all over the world is really exciting.”

When he isn’t studying, helping with student government, volunteering at the hospital and doing many other activities, Wertz finds time to be an outstanding athlete.

He was a key member of a St. Vincent golf team that had a 92-2 record during his four seasons on the team.

“It was fun beating some pretty big schools,” he says, pointing out that St. Vincent defeated most of the Empire’s larger schools while playing in the Bennett Valley and Ukiah tournaments.

He also ran for the St. Vincent cross country team and completed the San Francisco half marathon with several of his St. Vincent teammates and other friends.

“It was fun, but I put in quite a bit of training to get ready,” he says of his distance run.

Wertz is what might be called a St. Vincent de Paul native, advancing from St. Vincent Elementary School to the high school. For him, the experience has been both fun and rewarding.

“I have really enjoyed my time at St. Vincent,” he says. “It has given us (the graduates) plenty of resources to help us reach our potential.”

He has also appreciated being a part of a small school. “I know everyone. I can start up a conversation with anyone in my class and feel comfortable.”

He is the son of John Wertz and Suzanne Porter. When he is not at the hospital, studying, running, playing golf or planning his future, Wertz can be found helping at his father’s Fourth and Sea restaurant.

Steven Pozzi, Petaluma High School

Petaluma High School graduate Steven Pozzi, 17, not only wants to carry on his family’s ranching tradition, but also to stamp his own mark on Sonoma County Agriculture.

Pozzi is now the fifth generation of his family to be involved in area agriculture, and he is as earnest as he is articulate about the responsibilities of ranching in a changing world.

“We need to minimize input and maximize output using techniques that will make us more effective in everything we do,” he says.

To learn those techniques, he will continue his education at Fresno State University, where he will major in agricultural business.

Pozzi’s family - which includes father, Martin; mother, Sally; and sister, Regina, who is studying at the University of California, Berkeley - owns a beef and sheep ranch near Tomales, along with a trucking company in Petaluma. He attended St. Vincent Elementary School through the eighth grade, but chose Petaluma High for his secondary education, primarily because of its agriculture and FFA program.

He has never regretted his decision.

Not only has he excelled in his agricultural studies, he has also been extremely active in 4-H. He has shown animals at fairs since he was eight years old. During the summer of his freshman year at Petaluma, he spent nine straight weeks showing animals at various fairs.

He has attended numerous FFA conferences, including the Sacramento Leadership Experience, where he had an opportunity to meet with state officials, and the California State FFA Conference, where he spoke to an assembly of more than 500 people.

He has also been heavily involved in the Supervised Agricultural Experience where students learn how to apply what they are learning in the classroom as they prepare to transition into the world of college and career opportunities.

While busy with school and FAA, Pozzi still found time to play three sports - football, basketball and swimming - for the Trojans.

But listing his accomplishments doesn’t begin to tell the senior’s story. It is his passion for ranching and his vision of its future and the role that he might play in that future that truly reveal what he is about and what makes him unique.

“The future of agriculture is about how we do our marketing,” he says. “We have to know your company and be able to produce nutritious produce for your consumers.”

In Pozzi’s world that means marketing organic and pasture-fed beef.

“So many farms are already doing that. We are very close to going all organic and naturally raised,” he says.

Not that the future won’t be challenging as smaller family-owned ranches and farms try to survive in a changing world of fluctuating markets, evolving technology and competition from huge agricultural operations.

“It is going to be necessary for us (small ranchers and farmers) to get better,” Pozzi says. “It is hard for the individual small farmers to survive.”

In a statement that says much about Pozzi, the Petaluma High graduate includes in his comments: “I want to thank Petaluma High and the Ag program for giving me the opportunity to succeed and become an educated student ready for the next chapter of my life.”

That next chapter is college and subsequent chapters will certainly involve preserving a way of life for the area’s ranchers and farmers.

Lucas Hallett, Casa Grande High School

Four years ago, Las Vegas probably wouldn’t have taken odds on Lucas Hallett’s chances of receiving a high school diploma from Casa Grande High School, but odds makers and several teachers who tangled with a hot-headed freshman underestimated Hallett’s determination.

“He is very determined,” says Kelly Rankin, head of Casa’s Resource Specialist Program. “He just got it in his mind he was going to do better.”

As a freshman, Hallett was continually in trouble. He was suspended three times, was failing in school and seemed headed for continuation school at best and becoming a drop-out statistic at worst.

“It’s not something I’m proud of, but it was the way I was,” he says.

Over the next three years, Hallett changed dramatically.

Last year, as a junior, he had a 3.0 grade point average and he was honored as the RSP Student of the Year. This year, he was RSP Student of the Month for March.

“He had some problems, but he is a really nice kid,” says Rankin. “He is very helpful to the other students. He is very considerate and very funny. He has some strong opinions, but he is willing to listen and make changes.”

“It is pretty amazing,” Hallett says. “I went from being a student who didn’t care about anything to getting my stuff together. I just started maturing. I went from teachers disliking me to teachers who really like me.”

Hallett says he began to change after listening to his grandfather in his sophomore year.

“He told me, ‘School is your job. There is no way of getting out of it,’” the senior recalls. Hallett has been raised by his grandparents, Gil and Mary Bradshaw, since he was five years old, and says he owes them much. “They have really done a lot for me. They have supported me in everything.”

He calls Mary “a soccer grandma” for her help when he played the usual youth sports like baseball, soccer and a few more unique sports like bowling and competitive trap shooting.

One thing his grandparents also instilled in him is a work ethic.

“My grandparents taught me that nothing is worth having unless you have worked for it,” he explains. “If you work for something, you’ll appreciate it a lot more.”

While improving his grades, Hallett has worked 32 hours a week at Burger King. He so impressed his manager that in a short time he was made assistant manager and placed in charge of opening the restaurant.

He is currently working at Hunt & Behrens feed company and has cut back his hours to 16 per week, but has the promise of a full-time job once school is out.

Ultimately, he plans to enter an apprenticeship program and work at a trade, possibly plumbing.

His hard work has allowed him to buy his own vehicle, a 1975 Chevy pick up that he has modified and delights in continually fixing up. Once he began to get his life in order, Hallett never considered switching to another school.

“I want to graduate with my class from Casa Grande High School,” he says. “I want a Casa Grande diploma.”

On Friday night, he will get his prize. He has sure worked for it.

(Contact John Jackson at johnie.jackson@arguscou rier.com.)

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