CVHS alumni teachers reflect on their high school years

As students of CVHS graduate, most leave looking back on fond memories and teary eyes as they leave campus for their last time. However, some students have been able to come back years after their graduation, this time, to teach a new generation of students. 

Looking back on their years in high school, the CVHS alumni remembered fond memories and experiences that shaped them to become who they are today. Taking these experiences with them, they inspire their students now and help foster new memories.

Some alumni shared absurd stories from their time at CVHS, including senior pranks and crazy mishaps. 

“There was a massive flood on campus and I had to leave school early. It was in the 500 hall in my freshman year and it was awesome,” social studies teacher and 2001 graduate Ian Rodriquez recalled. 

Social studies teacher and CVHS graduate of 1997 Jackie Stone remembers a senior prank where many goats were put onto the roofs around campus, as well as an incident where students cut the fence to the pool and drove a car into the pool. 

Homecoming was a highlight for some of the alumni, recalling the time as exciting and competitive. 

“As juniors, we won all categories and beat the seniors with our Fantasyland themed float, skit, and dance routine,” English teacher Kelsey Olson, CVHS graduate of 2001 said. “I also remember we had fireworks during the HOCO football game (launched from the baseball fields).” 

Social studies teacher Angela Sigler, who graduated with the class of 2017, reflects a similar sentiment towards homecoming. For her homecoming in her senior year, she remembers everyone participated in going to the dance. “I was able to go out and dance with my friends and it was a lot of fun,” she said. 

Alumni teachers also remember the impact of clubs and extracurricular activities in their high school years, and encourage students to join things they were interested in. 

“I got involved in the Improv Club in either freshman or sophomore year and before, I had been very awkward and unconfident, but that club really helped me get out of my shell,” physics teacher Mander Kraut, graduating class of 2004, said. 

English teacher Travis Olazabal, who graduated in 2013, looks back at his favorite memories of attending the ASL Disneyland Deaf Awareness Day field trip, as well as working on plays and musicals in the drama and ASL departments. 

Similarly, Olson reflects she had the most amount of fun as a senior in the school musical; she had a few speaking lines and was a member of the ensemble, the production being “South Pacific.”

Stone, who graduated with other CVHS alumni like physical education teacher John Edwards and German teacher Barbara Andersen, said she kept many of her friends she had in high school and still runs cross country to this day, her experience dating back to her high school years. 

With this rich background of the teachers at CVHS, new memories are able to be fostered here on campus for the new generations, many that will last a lifetime.