Connect Canyons
Learning is about making connections, and we invite you to learn and connect with us. Connect Canyons is a show about what we teach in Canyons District, how we teach, and why. We get up close and personal with some of the people who make our schools great: students, teachers, principals, parents, and more. We meet national experts, too. And we spotlight the “connection makers” — personalities, programs and prospects — we find compelling and inspiring.
Connect Canyons
Episode 115: Dare. Dream. Do: The Voices of CSD's Class of 2025
This year, more than 2,750 seniors will don their caps and gowns and step up to receive their hard-earned diplomas. They head out into an ever-changing world at a time of economic uncertainty and rapid technological advances.
But they carry with them a confidence earned from having already faced and surmounted challenges — while notching a few wins along the way. The personal achievements of Canyons District’s Class of 2025 are exponential, from Sterling Scholar awards to National Merit Scholarship honors, not to mention 10 team state championships. This year’s seniors have been rewarded roughly $50 million in scholarships and will be attending more than 50 schools, from Harvard, Julliard, Boston University, and West Point to Stanford, Berkley, the University of Utah, and the Air Force Academy — just to name a few. Canyons has graduates joining every branch of the military, including some from Jordan High’s inaugural Naval Cadet Program who are now advancing to the Naval Academy.
In the last Connect Canyons episode for the year, we sat down with a few graduates who told us how they’re feeling about graduation. They’re full of that nervous excitement, ready to take on their next challenge. They shared some of their favorite memories from school and talk about the people who supported them along the way. They share their hopes and dreams after high school and the advice they would give themselves as incoming freshmen.
Congratulations to the Class of 2025, may all your dreams come true! You can see a list of available live streams for Canyons graduations here.
Welcome to Connect Canyons, a podcast sponsored by Canyons School District. This is a show about what we teach, how we teach and why we get up close and personal with some of the people who make our schools great Students, teachers, principals, parents and more. We meet national experts too. Learning is about making connections, so connect with us too.
Speaker 2:Learning is about making connections, so connect with us. This year, more than 2,700 seniors will don their caps and gowns and step up to receive their hard-earned diplomas in front of the Canyons community as pomp and circumstance plays. This year's graduates have a wide variety of accomplishments, from state champions to Sterling scholars, national rankings and national merits, not to mention the roughly 50 million dollars in scholarships rewarded to seniors across the Canyons community. Welcome to Connect Canyons. I'm your host, frances Cook. For this last episode of the school year. We had the opportunity to speak with six of our graduates. They share their feelings about graduation, some of their favorite memories from school and the people who supported them along the way. They share with us their hopes and dreams after high school and the advice they would give themselves as incoming freshmen. These are their stories.
Speaker 3:My name is Tessa Osborne. I go to Alta High School. I am, honestly, it's a mix of feelings. I'm so excited just to kind of move on to the next chapter, but I'm also a little sad to leave my friends behind and it's kind of like the final stretch. That's what it feels like. It's like that last I just got to make it to. Next week, so I am planning to attend New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts in New York, which I'm so excited about, and I leave in September and I'm planning on earning my BFA with a musical theater degree.
Speaker 3:I was about I was about seven years old when I kind of started getting interested in it. I remember we went to see Wicked downtown at the Capitol Theater before Eccles was like a big thing and we got to do a backstage tour of the stage and I remember our tour guide let us like walk onto the stage and see everything and I was like this is what I want to do, but I didn't really like get into it until I was around sixth or seventh grade, just because of resources and summer camps that I found out about. I think my parents have been my biggest inspiration and my supporters. They're the ones that kind of. When I expressed that I was interested in this, they're like, yeah, and they they put in all the time and you know, the money gets expensive and they wanted me to do this because it was something that I was passionate about and also in my high school career time here. The theater directors Lindsay Struxman and Lindsay Klein have been so influential for me and they really brought out my love for performing and made me confident in my abilities. This made me more confident as a person, period. I think if you compare me now to freshman year me, obviously that's going to be a big difference because it's four years but I didn't have a backbone. I was so nervous all the time and I probably wouldn't usually normally get on a stage and sing my heart out, but now it's like what I want to do and kind of what I crave.
Speaker 3:I think, first of all, you miss 100% of the shots you don't take Like you may seem, like you may feel like you're inadequate for a certain opportunity or a role or something. Like you think I couldn't, I couldn't ever get that, I couldn't ever do that. But it doesn't ever hurt to try because you never know what could come from it, because I think most of the opportunities that I've been able to have came from me just being like, oh, just try it, just because it looks fun, not thinking anything of it, and also that also the essence of found family. I think, like I said before, the my friends through theater have been like, I bet, some of my best friends through theater and they're like my second home, my second family, and they're the people that I get to hang out with the most and spend the most time with and they're also some of my biggest supporters. Recently we had our region and state competition and I placed first in region in musical theater, which was a big deal for me. I got a 74 and a 75 at state, so I medaled for that as well. I was just recently nominated for the UHSMTA best actress. I made it to top 10 finalists and I got to perform on the stage at Eccles Theater, which was so fun and it was so cool and I met a lot of really nice and talented girls.
Speaker 3:I would say once again just go for every opportunity and take what you're given, because sometimes you'll be faced with things that you don't expect or, in the theater sense, I guess, while we're on that topic Roles that you didn't really want or didn't expect, but taking the most of what you get and making that experience so much fun is really important, because it could be one of your favorite things that you do without even realizing it. Find the people that lift you up instead of drag you down, and they support you through everything that you do. That could be family members or just friends, or just people that you'll meet in college or whatever they plan on doing, but those are the people that you'll want in your life for the rest of your life, and they so, so important for everything not just performing just anything in life and also you see something that you want. You go for it. High school has been one of the best experiences ever.
Speaker 3:I've met so many of my best friends that I hope to keep for the rest of my life, and I think one of my biggest takeaways is you deserve so much love and I think you should be confident in yourself and don't be afraid to be weird. Sometimes I feel like that's really important. Sometimes we get so scared about what other people think which that's a basic answer but it really it kind of holds us back some. It holds us back all the time and I think, just learning to love yourself and also that you deserve that love and that you shouldn't have people in your life that don't reciprocate the same way, and I think that's really important.
Speaker 4:I'm Dawson Douglas. I go to Alto High School. I'm super excited, also a little nervous. I have to be a real adult At graduation. I've got about a month to hang out with friends and then I'm heading over to the Naval Academy. Pretty much basic training all up until summer. I chose the Naval Academy because I love my country and I want to serve and it sets you up for life, free education and a guaranteed job right out of it. The main one is probably AP Physics 1 and 2. My teacher Danford didn't seem to really care about class.
Speaker 4:Also, calc AB with Ms Price. Mr Stanford especially got excited when he was teaching. He got excited when he learned something new. He got excited when he was teaching. He got excited when he learned something new. He got excited when he was putting something up on the board. I was involved in a track. The track has been good. I learned that hard work pays off and a lot of life is about your mindset. I ran the 400, and you decide that you're going to go faster, that you go faster about how you think about it.
Speaker 4:I'd love to be a pilot and fly for Navy, after that maybe be a commercial pilot. No, I'd say maybe talk to more people, make more friends, like get to know everybody in school. Yeah, a little bit thinking more about what I want out of my life, what I, what I really want to do the first time, where it's not like a set thing that you have to kind of your choice now choose the path you want to take. That's up your life to figure out what you want to do and pursue it, even if it seems like it's a like it's going to be a difficult goal to achieve. Go after it and see if you can.
Speaker 4:I don't know, I think a lot of it was just making sure I was always there, making sure I was consistently going to school, doing my homework, doing all the little things that people don't With track it was. You just got to push through for that 50 seconds or that 20 seconds. You got to decide that you're going to do it and just think life is hard. This isn't the hardest thing I'm going to do in my life. I can push through this.
Speaker 6:Hi, I'm Cohen Bardsley and I come from Jordan High School. Really, I won't say apprehensive, but like kind of nervous, just because you know I've been doing high school for all my life so far Not even high school, just school in general, like K-12. And just coming to a point where that ends is kind of scary. I'm also really excited, though. I have a good plan of where I want to go and what colleges I'm going into, and I'm really confident that I'll have a lot of fun. I have a scholarship for Utah State University up in Logan, so I for Utah State University up in Logan, so I'm the head up there. I want to join the Utah Army National Guard and do the ROTC up there as well. So then, commission out of college as a officer in the obviously Utah Army National Guard. Then I want to go to being a cop, so I'll be doing the military and reserves. I want to be a police officer for four years and then after that I want to apply for an FBI special officer. It was. I went to apply for an FBI special officer. It was, I want to say, freshman year, and I kind of thought vaguely of like the military slash, policing aspect, but I just I think we were watching Saving Captain Phillips and there's a scene where there's like the militaries they show up and they're doing their military stuff. I was just watching it like dang, that's, that's something I want to do. Then, from there, I also just like looked into policing and that was super, super interesting. I went into CTECH for criminal justice, so it's like current enrollment and it was. That was amazing. I was just I was just doing that and I just like you feel like that burning passion and you're like, oh, this is something I want to do for the rest of my life.
Speaker 6:I'm in the theater and choir of Jordan High School. Those have been really awesome. Theater especially has just been able to help me build my confidence and my voice, since when you're on stage you really you can't really seem that shy, unless your role is to seem shy. You have to have this confidence and this projection and choir has kind of helped to reinforce that. Outside of school I'm in the Explorers, post 9550. It's this little paramilitary program that we work with the police departments and we just help them around. It's kind of like an intro program to becoming a cop almost. So all three of those, and obviously the NJROTC have just been really, I feel, instrumental in helping me just build myself up and grow confidence and just develop leadership skills.
Speaker 6:I learned how to sing. I love that. I learned how to act, how to be myself, how to not be myself I'd be dramatic when I need to be. I've learned a lot of military drill and whatnot. I can disassemble an AR-15, I guess.
Speaker 6:In terms of law enforcement, I've learned all this really cool behind-the-scenes stuff. I now know the Miranda stuff when cops can and cannot search you, action circumstances, all this background stuff. I did a couple of mock trials with some programs so now I know something about being a lawyer. The main way I've seen it is whenever I'm watching like a TV show or something, and it always or like whenever there's a cop or someone military in it and I'll be there and my family hates it. But I'll be the ones like, oh, they're not doing that right. Oh, they actually be. Shouldn't behind the door, should be like behind the car. When you're a tactical situation like that, it's just broadened my mind into like this whole military and pop just worlds. That's just been really cool, since there's this so much back that a lot civilians don't normally see Mr Newbolt, who's one of my math teachers and he's just, he was just awesome.
Speaker 6:I don't normally enjoy math but I was just taking his classes like yeah, this is really cool. He kind of helped me just build up my confidence in terms of stuff. You know my extracurriculars and whatnot. I probably the CTECH teacher, mr Edwin LaHalley, mr L, we called him, he's awesome, he's just. He always us laugh and he was just source of energy and I so many amazing memories with him that really helped me also push into the world of being a cop. Other teachers the top my head I'll tell my choir teacher as well Mr Putnam, he's always, he's really great and helping me learn how just like kind of be more confident singer and he's just, they're all just amazing, amazing teachers and they've just helped me in little individual ways and I love it.
Speaker 6:I really want to be like one of the people that's, I assume, a bit egotistical but like whenever someone's talking like oh, it's like a living legend or something. I want to be someone that like really really heavily contributes, whether it be through me being a cop or FBI agent or just someone that someone will talk about, kind of like in that like whoa, this guy did that he left the field. I just want to leave an impact. Really, it's what all boils down to. I want people to remember me Whenever I'm gone. I want people to or at least my kids or my family, to be able to look back at the legacy, at like, this thing I've created, and just be impressed and just be confident.
Speaker 6:Really go into something that you feel passionate about, because I mean, obviously, criminal justice. That sparks this insane passion in me. It just drives me. But find something that also drives you. You know, just figure out something that's you're going to wake up, you're going to be really happy and you're just, it's not going to be a trudge, you're not going to be going to work every day, but find something that you know A pays well, but also B just allows you to, yeah, just be happy really with your career in life or even something you just do on the side. Just find something that makes you happy. I'm just, I'm ready to walk my diploma in that case and just walk off into my new life. I'm super grateful for Jordan High School and what it's done for me, but I am ready to move on and just be my own person.
Speaker 5:Hi, my name is Tyree Pearson. I'm a senior at Brighton High School. I'm feeling really great, like a little nervous, making new friends and all that stuff, but I feel really happy, proud of myself. I love football. That's my passion, my dream. Like football is all I got right now and my favorite classes probably direct studies, just a little homework class. My teacher always helped me out with my homework, whatever I need help with. My dad got me into football and just like like the crowd just cheering my like, just cheering me on the second QB, just like being a monster on the field just makes me happy. Just like knowing the game, like taking the time, effort, blood, sweat and tears. Just like taking the time, effort, blood, sweat and tears. Just like all comes to me and takes my heart away and like I'm in love with the game.
Speaker 5:When I was at Judge Memorial I had this teacher. Her name was Coach Casey. She would always help me out with all my homework and give me different ways to like learn all my homework and give me different ways to like learn this all my homework. And just like made a impact for me Outside of school. Coach Cotero from Brighton High School always just gave me a chance and he just like read me and knowledge what I'd done gave me a lot of chances. He knew I was really about football no shortcuts. He saw me every day after practice I'll be working out by myself and then try asking a couple of my other teammates to work out with me and he felt like I'm a leader on and off the field and just like she teaching me new drills to work on and yeah, and then my father always gave me some free advices sometimes it hurts, but he was honest and then always just watching film with me and telling me what I got to do better as well. Always be nice to everybody, just check up on them, just socialize with people, just get to know them, talk to them and you get a lot of stuff out of it.
Speaker 5:Playing college football for Whitworth University, volcan Washington Hopefully I become a starter there, but still got to work hard, push myself, yeah and yeah goal my goal is just football right now. When I first went to Seattle I saw the stadium. I just like want to be that, like have that feeling of just looking up at the sky, just like dang, I made it here Seeing all the crowd just calling my name, having my jersey on and probably being the best player I could be, I mean it's really great. But college is way different than high school, so I'm not trying to get too cocky about it. Like I said, just keep working hard and try to start varsity and get to there. Some team goals Everybody gots this. I know that feeling being nervous, getting ready to graduate, just being or trying to take care of yourself. Now, if you have a goal, just do it, just stick it out, and if you fall out of it then it's okay. Just like, try to find something new and try to have fun with it.
Speaker 7:Don't let people use you my name is abby west, I'm 18 and I'm a senior at jordan high school. It's it's a mix of everything, like I'm scared, I'm excited, um, just every emotion you can think of. Mainly I'm really excited because I've already had like the next chapter of my life already planned out, so that's kind of relieving. But I'm still like really scared because I'm the last of my six siblings to graduate. I'm gonna be off to college in August and I'm going to be going to Utah Tech University down in St George for a bachelor's in special education. At Jordan and I think every other high school, there is a peer tutoring class where we get to help the students with disabilities and I really like it because for me, what helps me not focus so much on like my anxieties and whatever? I help other people. And it's really nice because then the kids get to know you and then they see you in the hall and it kind of just like brightens your day whenever you're kind of having an off day.
Speaker 7:I'm on the wrestling team I started when I was a freshman, which, going into high school, I didn't think I was going to do a sport, I was going to kind of go through the motion of school because I'm not a school person, if that makes sense Like I'm not, I don't like school. But then Coach Babbo good old Coach Babbo he saw me playing tag with some of my friends and he said you have a lot of spunk and you need to put it somewhere and you should join the wrestling team. And I was like that's weird, I don't want to do that. And then I thought about it more and I was like what's the harm in trying it? So I tried it and then I went to state my freshman year and I placed, which nobody thought I was going to. Even my mom was like why are you wrestling? That's weird. But I kept at it and I placed my sophomore. I was a state runner-up my junior year and then I became a state champion my senior year. My final high school match was my state final and it was very bittersweet.
Speaker 7:The state is definitely a really interesting experience because it's at Utah Valley. When I first walked into the union on my first year I was like what am I doing here? I do not belong here, this is crazy. And then, as time went on, I got really used to being there because I mean I placed four times and that's kind of unheard of at Jordan, which was kind of cool, but it's very like thrill-seeking. Wrestling has a lot of like thrill and excitement and for me it was like the moment I walk in like my adrenaline is just going crazy and I don't think about anything else and it's really fun. You get to see all the mats and everybody and the people and refs and it's insane. It's crowded too. It's really crowded.
Speaker 7:At State I was seated number one. I was the person to beat and I was scared because I was like what if I lose? Or what if I don't measure up to what people have thought of me? And going into it I was just like it's a match and I'm just going to put it all on the line. And the girl I ended up wrestling. We wrestled in the divisionals for the number one spot and it was a dogfight for sure and it ended up being another dogfight and when I won it was just like I just had all of this weight off my shoulders because I felt so much pressure to win. But I remember what one of my coaches told me before I started. He was it's just a match, it's six minutes, you'll be fine, and that kind of just put me in a spot where I was like, okay, I'm going to have fun.
Speaker 7:When I started in school, I was not a good kid at all. I was skipping class. I was back talking anyone with authority, anyone, even if it was just a hall monitor. But my teacher, coach Babel the one who got me into wrestling saw me one day skipping class and he was like Abby, are you okay? Like do you need anyone to talk to? And that kind of like sat with me for my freshman year. I was like wow, like I didn't think anybody cared because, like I just thought nobody cared. And like Babo. Babo, one of my old vice principals, before she went to Corner Canyon, miss Kohler, she kind of gave me a kick in the butt which I very much needed. Also, officer Hoops he's still there. He was my resource officer in middle school. He also kind of gave me a kick in the butt. And Babbo was like just he was, I call him my dad, like he's my school dad, like he kind of just kept an eye on me and when I was kind of going down like a bad route, like mental route, he would just be like Abby, are you okay? Do you need a break. Do you need someone to talk to? And I was. Somebody actually cares, and so that kind of gave me the motivation to keep going at school because I was so done with it. I was just ready to drop out, but those few people actually kept me at school.
Speaker 7:When I first started I was definitely a hothead. I let my emotions get the best of me a lot in matches and then it would just completely derail my whole day. But it always gave me something to look forward to like. If I had a bad day at school or just a bad day in general. Wrestling was always kind of like my escape, which was which is really nice because a lot of things.
Speaker 7:A lot of people think wrestling is very just physical and like we don't like each other and we just want to hurt each other and in some cases that is true, but it's honestly really mental because it's six minutes of nonstop moving Coaches, other coaches like chirping at you, people in the stands chirping at you and you always have to just shut everybody out and listen to like your corner. So it taught me a lot of discipline and just like being able to tune everybody out and focus on what I need to do, as well as, in a way, keeping up on grades, because I'm gonna have to wrestle in college and I won't be able to wrestle if I have bad grades. So that's kind of like instilled in me, like to manage my grades well. One of the goals for me for all four years of my college is to be an All-American, maybe be a national champion, I don't know. I will see what the future holds, but that's hopefully the goal, and then hopefully also to get my teaching license at some point that I can maybe come back to a Canyon school and like be a para educator or a co-teacher with one of the schools, because I know they're amazing schools, because I've been to a lot of like the unified basketball games and soccer games and whatnot and I just love seeing all the teachers there and I just want to be like one of those teachers that the students can like count on.
Speaker 7:One of the first things I would probably tell myself is you don't have to do everything everybody else does to fit in and you don't have to be cool to fit in and it's okay to be different and it's okay to be your own self, because my freshman self wanted to fit in, because I was always the awkward one out in middle school, but I wanted. I wanted to fit in, I wanted to be the cool girl, I wanted to have boyfriends, I wanted to do whatever I wanted pretty much. And now, looking back at it, I realize that like that is not the case at all. I would, would just tell myself like it is okay to be different and it's okay to not be the cool kid for once, because I would rather sacrifice my social life for, like, my happiness, because I can survive without friends. That is one thing I've learned is I can survive without people constantly around me. But yeah, I would just tell myself to be you and try not to be someone you're not.
Speaker 8:My name is Miles Layton and I go to Brighton High School. It is crazy, I mean I've been looking forward to it for the last four years and in the last two months or so it's just gone by so fast. But it's all good things, so super excited. I was born in Utah, moved to California, spent one year in California and then came back out here and was lucky to pretty quickly find a good group of friends, and baseball helped a lot with that. Staying close to those kids as I got through high school and then in high school was really fun, expanding my friend group and just building connections with tons of different people. One thing that was awesome with that was doing peer tutoring and building a lot of relationships with kids with extra needs and just finding such a great love for them and seeing the love that they have for every day. So that's probably been the greatest class I've taken and probably one of the highlights of high school, along with baseball, is peer tutoring.
Speaker 8:Honestly, I don't know if there's a specific thing that I could tell you, but I took the class my freshman year, which was uncommon. Usually Most freshmen didn't take it, but I decided I wanted to and I loved it and I've taken it every year since and every opportunity I've gotten I've been able to take it, which has been fun. My dad played baseball, my uncles played baseball, so it was kind of in my blood. But there's pictures of me when I was not even one years old with a bat and ball in my hand and I just have grown to love it and grown to find my own joy in it, which has been fun. Yeah, my high school career has been awesome. I mean, starting my freshman year I found a lot of good friends and upperclassmen and it's been fun to become that. For some of the underclassmen this year's been super special. We have a special team and a special group of guys that's pretty talented In baseball. There's so much more to it than just what meets the eye and there's so much mental preparation that goes into it. But on top of that there's so many life lessons and life connections that baseball has bettered me as a person and as a son and a friend and a brother way more than I could have expected.
Speaker 8:Just as a baseball player. I mean 100%. My parents I have the best parents in the world and I'm so grateful for them and all the help they've given me. I'm also super grateful. I have three sisters that are such amazing role models even though some of them are younger I still look up to them so much. And then just my coaches, especially Coach Clevin, who's our head coach at Brighton High School. He's taught me a lot and helped me grow both as a baseball player and as a young man. It was awesome. I mean, of course, I don't work hard to receive the recognition, but it does help, obviously, and it's exciting to see hard work pay off and see that recognition both from baseball and from academics and just life. I mean, academics has always been important to me, especially as a student athlete, maintaining that balance and learning how to do that, balancing school and baseball and I know that baseball is great and academics are great, but as long as I could do them both, that they would build off each other and benefit me.
Speaker 8:Next I'm actually serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ to Fiji and then when I return I'm gonna play baseball at the Air Force Academy. Baseball opened that opportunity and at first it wasn't something that I was immediately drawn to, but as I learned about the, the culture of the academy and the family that it was and the opportunity that I had to be a part of it was something I couldn't turn down. Right now I'm thinking about doing cyber security and computer sciences major, but definitely still time and a lot of great opportunities to consider. So my dad actually does cybersecurity for work and the academy has an awesome program that would set me up very well and just a great opportunity to take advantage of. Of course I want to play baseball as long as I can.
Speaker 8:I love baseball so much, but I also understand that it's an opportunity to other dreams in life. So just getting through the academy and I know how difficult that might be but just to get through that and get through it successfully and then use that as a launching pad for the rest of my life and my career. I mean it's so cliche, but it goes so fast, so enjoy it. I mean, looking back now that I graduate in a week or two here, it's crazy how fast it's gone. And so I just tell myself enjoy it and get to know as many people as you can and just be nice to everyone, because everyone is actually so awesome, like the more I've gotten to know everyone.
Speaker 2:We'd like to thank the graduates for sharing their stories and their hopes and dreams with us. Congratulations to the class of 2025. May all your dreams come true.
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