Geiser Scholarship Winner Jaylen Dang • 31 Remarkable Students in a Remarkable Year

COMMUNITY NEWS

Geiser Scholarship Winner Jaylen Dang

Jaylen Dang is a future doctor. She’s going to the University of San Francisco, where the core values — care of the whole person, being people for others, and diversity in all its forms — are a good fit for her.

This year was difficult at Aptos High.

On Aug. 31, her classmate since 4th grade, Gerardo, was stabbed on her campus and died of his injuries. Jaylen was in the school pool at the time, unaware of what was happening. Later she learned that he collapsed not far from where she was.

She was not close to Gerardo, but he had said hi to her at Valencia Elementary when she was new student coming from Oakland.

“I will always remember his smile,” she said.

She was plagued by “what ifs.” What if she had medical training and could have helped as a first responder?

The collective trauma experienced by students at Aptos High propelled her into action. She had started the Community of Science Club to embrace diversity in science, but the tragedy turned students toward medicine.

“As a school, we took a whole day to remember him and we did mindfulness coloring to grieve,” she recalled. “We made cards and wrote kind words in honor of him. After a week, I consulted my teacher who was my advisor for my club. I discussed with her that this event was how it secured my interest in medicine to help people heal from injuries. After brainstorming, I created a reflection survey to get an idea of how the members of the club were feeling. We brought in guest lecturers who became doctors and they showed us the weight of their field of work.”

She learned that despite the losses you will experience that are out of your control, those who survive give you hope and keep you going.

“I think that developing a support system and being able to hear other people’s stories of their experiences with losses helped me and my peers heal a bit more,” she said.

Jaylen had leadership experience to build on. As part of her involvement with the LEO club (leadership, experience, and opportunity), she helped raise $2,500 for a Gravity Water project to build a sustainable filtration system for a school in Nepal to have access to clean drinking water. The fundraiser was held during the pandemic, so Jaylen had to find creative ways to lead her team virtually, with no standard bake sales to raise money.

Jaylen is a four-time recipient of the SCCAL Scholar-Athlete Award, took six Advanced Placement classes and maintained a weighted grade-point average of 4.26.

A first-generation college student, she’ll major in biology. A bonus is that USF is only a 30-minute drive from her grandmother, and she hopes to spend more time with her.

The Emmett & Elise Geiser Scholarship awards up to $1,000 to graduating seniors from Watsonville High, Pajaro Valley High, and Aptos High who have earned at least one athletic letter. The award is renewable annually based on academic performance. n

31 Remarkable Students in a Remarkable Year

Community Foundation Awards Nearly $250,000 in Scholarships

When the Covid pandemic hit in spring of 2020, this year’s class of graduating seniors were in the middle of their sophomore year. Of their four-year high school career, almost half of it was via distance or hybrid learning.

And yet this year’s awardees still excelled in class, volunteered in the community, played sports when they could, participated in clubs and extracurricular activities, and worked paying jobs to help their families make ends meet.

“Scholarships” page 18

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