Simi, Royal, Oak Park Grads Step Toward Dreams

These students have clung to their grand dreams for the future for years--whether it be to win an Academy Award or to establish a health clinic in Africa.

On Tuesday, their chance to begin the journey to fulfill those dreams finally arrived.

More than 1,000 seniors from Simi Valley and Oak Park capped their high school years with three separate outdoor graduation ceremonies during an overcast evening. At Royal High School, 520 seniors were escorted onto the football field by 16 bagpipers. They were led to the center of the stadium that was filled with more than 3,300 relatives and friends.

Jenni Reynolds of Royal High said she had been waiting a long time to leave high school and become independent. But the 18-year-old said she had mixed emotions about graduation.

“I’m excited,” she said. “I’m nervous and scared. I’ve got butterflies fluttering everywhere and I’m sad.”

At the same time, Simi Valley High School held its graduation for about 560 seniors and the smaller Oak Park High School said goodbye to its 156 graduates.

“I would hope they would rely on all the nurturing and support and preparation and learning they’ve accumulated thus far in their lives and use that as kind of a springboard from which they can go into their future,” said Tess Wilkoff, a guidance counselor at Oak Park High School.

Franky Martinez, for one, said he is ready to move on. For several years, the 17-year-old Royal High School senior has dreamed about directing a blockbuster film about a tragic hero from the Dark Ages who has a love affair with a vixen princess. He read about this real-life historical figure, whose identity he asked to keep secret, during a class in ninth grade.

“For a long time, I had the idea in my head,” said Franky, who describes himself as a film buff. More than anything else in the world, Franky, who loves to watch movies, wants eventually to make them.

“I’m one step further toward my goal,” said Franky, who is set to attend USC’s School of Cinema in the fall. The ultimate goal is to garner an Academy Award for directing his Dark Ages adventure story.

While a number of students expressed a bit of fear at plunging into adulthood, they also said they were excited to try new things.

For Daniel Hampton of Simi Valley High School, graduation is the beginning of a plan to follow his dream to another continent.

The 17-year-old wants one day to return to Africa, where he traveled in 1992 to visit his grandmother, then a missionary in Ghana. She helped people learn how to read Dagbani, one of the languages spoken there.

Daniel said he saw the need for doctors there and hopes someday to set up a health clinic in that part of Africa along with a neurosurgical practice in the United States.

“It’s just that there are literally no doctors for almost hundreds of miles, so I just really see a need there,” said Daniel, who plans to begin a biophysics program at UC San Diego in the fall.

Emily Millard, 17, of Royal High, said she wants to achieve happiness by reaching people through her writing, either as a journalist or as an author of children’s books.

“It seems so simple to be happy, but it’s not so easy,” she said. “I’m going to obtain it. I will.”