All teachers’ responses were pared and edited for clarity.
Danielle Jensen
How would you describe your parents growing up?
Both my parents really valued education and came from working class families. My father grew up very poor. He grew up in a two bedroom house with seven kids. Because he was an amazing athlete, he got a scholarship to a high school that changed his life. So he was a role model that reminded me the importance of a good education. My parents always stressed that you can do anything, and I believed it.
How was your school experience different or similar from the experience of Menlo students?
I never really felt left out of activities because everyone kind of was doing their own thing. And there were a lot more places we all would go. So for example, there was a diner we would go to if we wanted to be with people our age. We had to actually go somewhere. It wasn’t like being on FaceTime or on a phone.
How did you stay motivated throughout high school?
I always had the mentality that I wanted to give my all to whatever I did so I would have no regrets. So I got involved as much as I could in high school, and took advantage of all the high school had to offer.
John Schafer
What was your life and hometown like when you were growing up?
I was born and raised in Washington, D.C. In the same way that students growing up in this community have an awareness of Silicon Valley and the startups and the tech world, in D.C. you just were automatically aware of the basics of politics.
How did you stay motivated throughout high school?
I think I have high expectations for myself. Where I got that from was on some level from my folks and on some level from the people I went to school with. Knowing stuff was cool. I mean, we had some classmates who knew a lot of stuff and that was impressive. I wanted to keep up with them; I wanted to write a good research paper, I wanted to be well informed in the conversations. Yeah, okay, I was a little bit of a smart aleck.
What did you do for fun?
I was a sports guy — I made sports videos. This was way before we had the technology to edit stuff on the computer, but with a VCR I would tape the sportscasters who ran particularly good highlights, kind of the equivalent of like ESPN. So I would take these sports highlights and splice them in such a way that I could make a pretty fun video reel of cool sports bloopers or great catches or great goals. I spent a lot of time on that.
Angela Curotto-Pierson
What was your life like growing up?
I was born and raised in San Carlos. I went to Menlo from grades six through 12. I felt like I was always doing something. I mean, I’ve been dancing since I was three and I did a lot of sports as well.
How was your school experience different or similar from the experience of Menlo students?
The Menlo Dance program was similar because it was inclusive, it was fun. It was a second home on campus. Menlo was also always rigorous, but it wasn’t crippling if that makes sense. Everyone was talking to everyone about the college process in a way that was healthy, not competitive.
What were you like in high school? What was your friend group like?
If you take the spirit Menlo saw at the house spirit assembly, imagine when I was a teenager it was the same thing. I was nominated for class clown senior year. I also enjoyed being the one volunteering for spirit activities. I liked having fun and putting myself out there. I actually tried basketball, but after freshman year my identity pretty much became “dancer.” I would always want to perform, and my senior year was the first time we performed at the halftime of Valpo Bowl.
