COMMUNITY NEWS
Monte Vista Christian School’s Top Students M onte Vista Christian School is graduating 143 seniors at a ceremony at 6:30 p.m. Friday, May 27. Valedictorian are: Mark Spohn, Samuel Catania, and Sophia Catania. The salutatorian is Jade Mon. Here they talk about their future plans, how Covid affected their experience and what they enjoyed most. ••• Valedictorians
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Mark Spohn
am going to attend Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo. I will be majoring in ,echanical engineering. At Monte Vista Christian, I played three sports: football, soccer, and baseball. I played quarterback for the football team, midfield in soccer, and left field for the baseball team. I was also enrolled in art classes. My art was featured in three Mark Spohn art shows, and I painted a mural at the school. I’m excited my mural leaves a lasting mark that can be enjoyed for years to come. Covid definitely made it harder to learn, but Monte Vista Christian did a great job to make online classes as normal as possible with advanced technology. It was easy for our school to transition as the school had required every student to have an iPad. Covid also affected my sport’s
seasons. Luckily, I only missed one full season of soccer and was still able to play shortened seasons my junior year. At Monte Vista Christian, I enjoyed the environment the most. Monte Vista has provided me with many opportunities to be the best version of myself in academics, athletics, the arts, and spiritually. Everyone at Monte Vista is very kind and encouraging. I have made many close relationships with friends and staff that make everyday enjoyable. Parents: Joy Spohn and Rick Spohn
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Samuel Catania
will be attending Cal Poly San Luis Obispo as a biochemistry major. I participated in school theatre productions, choir, National Honor Society, and Thespian Honors Society. Outside of school, I do karate at Body Worx Martial Arts Covid greatly restricted the extracurricular activities I can do. Choir and Samuel Catania theatre both require a lot of in-person contact to be done at their full potential. It also forced me to learn in new ways. I found out I’m really bad at retaining information I learn in online lectures, so I had to do more studying on my own and find new methods of learning online. At Monte Vista Christian, my favorite
experience was playing LeFou in Beauty and the Beast. It was fun to perform and it had an incredible cast that was really fun to work with. Parents: Tracie and Vince Catania
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Sophia Catania
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Jade Mon
’m attending Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in the fall, and I’m majoring in marine sciences. At MVC, I participated in band, the California Scholarship Federation, the National Honor Society, and the Thespian Society. Outside of school, I played the flute and piccolo at Youth Music Monterey and trained in karate at Body Worx Martial Arts. Because of Covid, I was in Sophia Catania remote learning for over a quarter of my high school experience. There are positives and negatives to that learning environment, but I definitely missed out on making connections with my classmates and teachers. My favorite memories at MVC are playing in the pit orchestra for the musicals and my senior year prom. Parents: Tracie and Vince Catania. ••• Salutatorian will be attending UC Berkeley, intending to double major in biological sciences
and computer sciences, or majoring in bioengineering. I was the president of the National Honor Society, founded and led the English Tutoring Club as president and served as secretary for MVC’s chapter of California Scholarship Federation, creating and leading service opportuJade Mon nities for all to have a positive and meaningful impact on our community. Covid drastically changed my high school experience, especially with online learning. I felt disconnected from my peers and teachers. Seeing faces on a screen isn’t the same as a conversation in-person. Talking on Zoom felt awkward and strange. This motivated me to found the English Tutoring Club. Additionally, my experience when interning at NASA taught me other ways to connect with my peers and effectively communicate information to ensure everyone stayed in the loop. Covid taught me a lot about communication, even though I felt so far away from my peers and teachers. Monte Vista Christian School has a really beautiful campus. Even walking from class to class, a fresh breath of air is so refreshing! Parents: Joanna Chung and Johnny Mon.
Cabrillo Stage Presents A Fresh Take on a Familiar Story: ‘Grease’
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By Mindy Pedlar
assie Nordgren directs and choreographs Cabrillo Stage’s summer production of Grease. She comes from a very musical family. Not only are her father and uncles musicians, her mother owns and operates an acclaimed dance academy near Oakland. Cassie took her first official dance class at age 3, but she began giving recitals at home as soon as she could walk. In Cassie’s words, “Dance has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. I think I first realized my love of storytelling on stage in 7th grade when I was cast as Clara in The Nutcracker. It was my first time being on stage for more than a 3-minute song, and I LOVED it. I am not sure if I fully recognized Clara’s character arc at that point in my theatrical
while moving pieces of scenery. To journey, but I remember enjoying receive an “Outstanding Chorebeing a character as much as ography” nomination by Theatre dancing a character.” Bay Area for my work on the When asked which choretransitions in that play was just ography award has been most the cherry on top of an extremely meaningful, she replied that it’s rewarding experience. “ more about the project than the Cassie also is an accomaward. plished director in the process “I have twice had the opporCassie Nordgren of obtaining a master’s degree tunity to collaborate with Michael Butler, the former artistic director of Center in directing from Baylor University. In describing her artistic vision for REP in Walnut Creek,” she explained. “He is wonderfully quirky and creative. I was Grease, Cassie says, “There are two big ideas brought in to choreograph transitions on guiding this production. The first is nostalgia. David Ives’ adaptation of The Liar. Under Most people don’t know this, but the script Michael’s direction, I got to choreograph these of Grease actually starts at a high school wildly fun scene changes that turned the cast reunion with Miss Lynch, Eugene, and Patty into rock stars using ‘60s French pop songs, all welcoming everyone and reminiscing about
24 / June 1st 2022 / Aptos Times www.tpgonlinedaily.com
the years gone by. It’s a weak framing device, but I have chosen not to cut it because I think it is a great reminder that this show is looking back in time, at an era when life was simple and music was rockin.’ There are some things that the characters do or say in this show that we as humans living in 2022 wouldn’t do or say today. The second idea is acceptance. Universally, that is what high school is about, right? Learning to accept yourself and doing crazy things so others will accept you. Of course, the power of Grease is that the music is accepting of everyone at any age. Under those two umbrellas, there is a lot to play with and a lot of fun to be had, especially with our amazingly talented cast.” “Grease” page 26
