The Abridged version:
- Thousands of students across the Sacramento region recently graduated or are preparing to walk across the stage in a matter of days.
- Abridged spoke with graduates of the class of 2026 about their high school experiences, plans for the future and advice for any soon-to-be high schoolers.
- This is the first of a two-part series sharing the stories of students from Woodland, Elk Grove, Sacramento and Natomas.
Graduation season is taking place across the Sacramento region. And as thousands of high school seniors have accepted their diplomas and prepared to walk across the stage, several graduates from the class of 2026 recently sat down with Abridged to share stories of their time in high school.
The 17- and 18-year-olds spoke about the family and community that inspired them, sometimes to the point that freshman versions of themselves wouldn’t recognize who they are now.
Some are the first to graduate in their family. Others are following in the footsteps of multiple generations. Most reflected on just how short four years ended up feeling.
Jump to each graduate’s story:
Santiago Morales, Woodland High School, Woodland
Stephanie Chen, Cosumnes Oaks High School, Elk Grove
Sofia Contreras, St. Francis Catholic High School, Sacramento
Lamar Willis, Inderkum High School, Natomas
‘He wanted me to do better’
In one semester, Santiago Morales turned a 1.2 GPA into a 4.0.
As a freshman, Morales didn’t have the grades to make the Woodland High School soccer team. Wanting to compete in a sport he’s enjoyed since he was 3 years old helped motivate his turnaround. Morales played for the junior varsity team as a sophomore and on varsity the next two years.
But he was also inspired by his family, he said, including his older brother, who died when Morales was going into middle school
“I thought of it like, he went to heaven believing in me,” Morales said. “He wanted me to do better.”
Morales, 18, will be the first in his family to earn a high school diploma without attending a continuation school. He plans to earn an associate degree in business administration at Woodland Community College, while also going to barber school. Later, he hopes to transfer to a four-year college and follow in his dad’s footsteps with his own barbershop.
“Freshman me, I don’t even think he would be thinking he’s graduating from Woodland High,” Morales said.
Morales is not only graduating; he has direct involvement in Friday’s ceremony. Classmates voted to feature his design on the event programs, and as one of a handful of student speakers, Morales will give the land acknowledgment.
He anticipates tears from both his parents.
“I’m going to be wearing sunglasses, though,” Morales said. “So they won’t see me crying.”
‘I felt like a random stranger’
From varsity swimming and various clubs to about a dozen Advanced Placement classes and medical career courses, Stephanie Chen balanced a lot in her four years at Cosumnes Oaks High School.
“It kept my life filled,” she said.
Chen, 17, was in sixth grade at Zehnder Ranch Elementary School when the COVID-19 pandemic began. Remote and later hybrid learning made the following middle school years feel just like a continuation of elementary school, she said.
Then, “when I entered ninth grade, I was like, ‘Woah, this school is huge,’” Chen said. “I felt like a random stranger that just entered a new world with, like, a language I didn’t speak.”
But now, having mastered high school in Elk Grove, she said she feels ready to take on one of the state’s largest college campuses.
Chen is set to study physiological sciences at the UCLA, with plans to eventually head to medical school. As of now, she said she’s interested in becoming either an OBGYN or plastic surgeon.
In her family, Chen is a first-generation college student. She’s excited to get to share pieces of the experience with her parents whenever they visit.
“I feel like, woah, this is cool,” she said. “I get to show my family college life.”
‘I really have changed for the better’
Traces of Sofia Contreras’ family are all over St. Francis Catholic High School.
There’s the statue of the school’s namesake, designed by her mother’s cousin, Adan Romo. Other pieces of his artwork dot the East Sacramento campus. The names of her mother, Monica Romo, and grandmother, Susanna Leon, are listed on the walls with decades worth of alums.
The family’s most recent stamp on the all-girls private school is a heart-shaped lock, fastened to the front gate of the Canticle Garden. The engraved metal reads “Sofia, Monica, Susanna” and “Class of ’26, ’92, ’67.”
Contreras, 17, graduated from St. Francis on May 21 and is headed for Pomona College in southern California. As her high school’s valedictorian, she took the time to highlight the bonds that go beyond family.
“Something really big at St. Francis is sisterhood and community,” Contreras said. “I kind of wanted to be able to remind us not to lose it.”
At St. Francis, the top 10 students can apply to be the valedictorian. Contreras, after learning she was eligible to put her name forward, was wary. Had she been asked as a ninth grader to stand on stage and give a speech to all her peers, Contreras said she expects her answer would have been no.
“Or if I was going to, I would have been, I don’t know, hyperventilating in the car beforehand,” she said.
But, Contreras said, “I took the opportunity.”
“That was one of the big things I realized, like, ‘Oh, I’m not the same person I was before,’” she said. “I really have changed for the better.”
‘Take your time’
If Lamar Willis had any advice for soon-to-be high schoolers, it would be to participate.
“Join any clubs that you’re interested in,” Willis said. “Or even not interested in … Just find something to do.”
The recent graduate of Inderkum High School in North Natomas said basketball was the highlight of his freshman year. But after fracturing his left ankle that spring, persistent pain kept Willis from playing on a team in the years following.
Willis, 18, participated in a handful of other extracurriculars, including lunchtime Bible studies and enrolling his senior year in a weekend program teaching students manufacturing skills. He excelled in his math classes but plans to study business and marketing at Sacramento State to keep his future career options open.
His other words of wisdom to any incoming ninth graders: “Take your time.”
Last fall, one of his teachers put a countdown to graduation up in their classroom. It began with a number in the 200s. Willis recalled thinking, “Man, we got a long time.”
But then, he said, “It just kept going down and down.”
When the countdown hit 30 days, Willis thought, “Oh man, it’s right there.”
Even on the day of graduation, May 29, Willis said the full weight of the moment didn’t sink in.
“It just went by super fast.”
