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Congrats to the Class of 2024!
It was a high school experience with more than a few twists and turns for the 59 members of the Class of 2024—starting online freshman year and moving to our permanent home on Killingsworth Street sophomore year. A resilient crew, they locked in to take full advantage of all Knight Nation has to offer, and their graduation ceremony on June 1 was an exuberant celebration of all their achievements through the past four years.
There are now 1,101 DLSNC alumni showing the world all that a Knight can do with a powerful education, and we can’t wait to see how the ‘24s shine as they launch into college. Click here to watch highlights from graduation day.
At graduation, two valedictorians— Elane Abebe and Evelyn Ku-Castillo—shared meaningful addresses. They were followed by a keynote speech from distinguished alumna, Dr. Enat Arega '14, who had, just the day before, received her doctorate in medicine from the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. What an example! Click here for the students' speeches and here for the keynote speech. In addition, the following awards were announced:
The Faith Award: Kanise Tucker
The Gerald Bitz Service Award: Monica Lopez Hernandez
The Community Award: Kynayzya Brewer
The St. Joseph the Worker Award: Kynayzya Brewer
The De La Salle Award: Kynayzya Brewer
Click here for more photos from Commencement 2024.
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Academic Honor Societies at DLSNC
The San Miguel Chapter of the National Honor Society (NHS) inducted 15 seniors for the graduating Class of 2024 —one-quarter of the class. These students met the rigorous chapter requirements and were officially inducted at our Senior Presentation Award Ceremony. To be honored as an NHS member, a candidate must meet a high academic standard (cumulative GPA of 3.5 or above) and be a person of character by demonstrating leadership and service throughout their high school experience. Our members have displayed remarkable commitment and resilience and were distinguished at graduation with gold and blue NHS honor cords. Also announced officially at the Senior Presentation was the induction of eight members of the Class of 2024 into the Sociedad Honoraria Hispánica (SHH), an academic honor society focused on Spanish language excellence. To become a member, a student must meet a high academic standard specifically in their Spanish classes in addition to a high average in their combined classes. In order to fulfill the required service component of benefiting the Spanish-speaking community, members offer Spanish tutoring to other students through the Academic Resource Center. At graduation, the eight SHH inductees wore the Sociedad's gold and red honor cords.
Click here for lists of the members of the Class of 2024 in our two honor societies.
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Saying Farewell to Knight Legends
Along with bidding adieu to our 20th graduating class, this month we are saying a fond farewell filled with loads of gratitude to four remarkable Knights—Maria Cabrera, Tim Joy, Polly Waibel, and Edward Zupcic. At our recent Alumni Reunion, Jonna Frater ‘06 and Rashida Saunders ‘05 shared the following:
One of the reasons we are gathering today is to celebrate and honor four remarkable individuals who have dedicated years of their lives to shaping the minds and hearts of De La Salle students. All four of their classrooms have been sanctuaries of knowledge where curiosity was nurtured and dreams were ignited. They have had a profound impact on our school community.
For more of Jonna's and Rashida's reflections, click here.
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Second Alumni Reunion—A Glorious Afternoon of Reconnection
Members of almost every graduating class visited campus on June 9 for our second alumni reunion. Mr. Chance and Mr. Mickola served up some delicious barbecue, and the 100 or so attendees enjoyed checking out the building, searching the composite photo wall for their student pictures, informal basketball, and introducing their spouses and children to each other. AND lots of chatting! There also was an open mic for alums to share memories and appreciation for our four retiring Knights. It was a fun-filled, glorious afternoon!
Attendees universally felt deep fondness regarding the support and opportunities they received as students. Here are a few alum reflections on what element of their DLSNC experience they now call on the most:
“The small class sizes helped me to focus on getting out of my shell. That’s helped me do communications, PR, and media for the Urban League of Portland. If it wasn’t for theater here and being able to MC for talent shows or do the morning announcements, I don’t think I would ever be doing what I’m doing today.” Rachel Hartley ‘13
“Work ethic!” Dietrich Lachmann ‘16
“I really appreciated the work study program, getting day-to-day work skills that I still use to this day.” Francis Stretch ‘13
“One of the things that I learned here that I use as an adult is to be kind to one another and try not to be someone else but rather be yourself,” Edgar Navarro ‘07
“One thing that I’ve taken away that I hold dearly to my heart is the saying, Enter to Learn; Leave to Serve. I continue to do volunteer work as an adult. I’m the parliamentarian for the National Society of Black Engineers for Philadelphia, I do interviews for prospective Georgetown students, and I also read scholarship applications for the Black United Fund of Oregon.” Deanna Hartley Blackwell ‘10
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Our First Pathways Graduates in Health Sciences!
At this year’s graduation, a new color honor cord made its first appearance. Five members of the Class of 2024 are De La Salle North Catholic’s inaugural graduates in our rigorous STEAM Pathways program in Health Sciences. The honor cords and accompanying certificates represent many, many hours of extra work put in by these five young women, jumpstarting them toward their future careers in health. The recipients are listed below along with their selected universities and declared majors:
Elane Abebe, Howard University, Nursing/Pre-Med
Liliana Bautista-Chavez, University of Portland, Nursing
Kiana Brixey, Oregon State University, Food Science
Genesis Gomez-Mejia, University of Portland, Nursing
Daniela Santiago-Hernandez, University of Portland, Biology
For more on Pathways, click here.
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Corporate Work Study Snippets
First-year CWS Partner, Associated General Contractors, was super thoughtful in sending off its Student Associate, Kanise Tucker ‘24. After learning of her college choice (University of Arizona), they ordered her a sweatshirt. And their gift of a tool kit will ensure she’s prepared for many of life’s challenges—in college and beyond! →
Ben Fitzgibbon ‘24 has spent the last three years as a Student Associate at Nike Global Controlling Operations, and on his final day at the Nike campus they celebrated his work with a catered lunch for the whole team. Ben made a presentation about his growth over the years and was gifted with a pair of his favorite Nike Jordans as a thank-you for his hard work. ↓
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Bucky Coleman’s ‘24 supervisor at AAA Oregon/Idaho made cupcakes and invited his ↑ mom to attend a surprise party for him on one of his last days in the office. AAA also generously sent Bucky off with a check to go towards his Oregon State University tuition next year, a powerful testament to the strong bonds developed through CWS.
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Selfie With a Supervisor
For the first time in several years, all four grade levels at De La Salle North Catholic worked five days per month in local businesses across the gamut of industries. To celebrate this exciting development in our integral Corporate Work Study (CWS) program, we’re taking a regular peek into the experience, from both a student’s perspective as well as that of his or her supervisor.
Grand + Benedicts has partnered with us for 15 years. Senior Micah Peixoto was there on Wednesdays (plus one rotating Monday per month) working with David Lazarus, Assistant Warehouse Manager. In addition, Micah was hired directly by Grand & Benedicts to work a fuller schedule last summer and will do the same this summer—an example of the CWS workforce pipeline in action.
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What’s been the coolest thing about working with Micah?
Micah has from day one been a pleasure to work with. He comes in and immediately goes to work performing virtually flawless work pulling orders for small parcels. We have had a few new hires recently, and Micah has taken the time to help them learn the ins and outs of pulling orders. The entire staff holds Micah in very high respect, and supervisors request him for projects because he follows directions so well and asks questions when they need to be asked. Micah’s work ethic is as good as any employee I’ve seen, and I believe he has a bright future in whatever he goes on to do. If that’s not enough, he is also one of the finest young men I’ve ever met. He has a positive attitude, is very polite, courteous, and works well with all our employees. (David Lazarus)
How did you grow as a Student Associate at Grand + Benedicts? What was the coolest thing about working there?
I learned a lot about problem-solving. There’s a lot of things that happen there that require searching, using systems, communicating to people when there are issues. Just knowing that everyone has their part, and if you work together, whatever the issue, it will get done. I also got a lot of good customer service experience, talking to customers for will call.
I loved getting to meet all sorts of different people, finding out about them, where they are from. The people are so nice, and making connections has been super valuable. They said that I really helped to smooth out the week. It also was great being able to walk a lot when pulling orders, not just doing one repetitive task. I did so many different things.
Working at Grand + Benedicts last summer really helped me too. It was exciting to be asked to do that, and working 8-5, four days a week made me learn all the stuff about employment. Figuring out taxes and pay stubs and all that was a first for me. (Micah Peixoto '24)
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| Ways to support
Fred Meyer Reward Cards + De La Salle North Catholic
By linking your Fred Meyer community rewards points to De La Salle North Catholic we will receive a quarterly donation from Fred Meyer. It only takes a moment to sign up:
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