Aiden Niklaus attended Tierra Pacifica through middle school, graduating with a class of 18.
He says it was therefore a substantial culture shock coming to Aptos High School, where his class alone boasts nearly 300 students and the sprawling campus seemed tantamount to a bustling city.
“It was a super hard experience, just finding my way,” he said. “It’s been a process finding the people I jibe with.”
He says he nevertheless managed to build a network of friends he describes as “kind and open-minded people.”
“I appreciate them a lot because I definitely attribute a lot of my success to them,” he says.
Niklaus shares the Valedictorian spot with Emma Yeaman, whose story is below.
Niklaus says he played lacrosse during his four years at the school, and was a part of Aptos High’s award-winning Robotics Team. He is hoping to study engineering and play lacrosse at a four-year university, but says he is planning on taking a gap-year before that.
That decision, he says, was sown when he entered his senior year doubting whether he wanted to attend college immediately after graduating.
It was cemented, however, when he received rejection letters and waitlist notices from the colleges to which he applied.
“I’m super excited,” he said. “It’s been 4-plus years in the making, and I’m looking forward to sharing the moment with my peers. Nothing but joy.”
Emma Yeaman says the upcoming end to her high school years has brought on a “mix of emotions.”
“I’m definitely excited,” she says. “I am also a little sad. I have been thinking the past couple of days actually of all the small things about high school I’ll be doing for the last time.”
Yeaman plans to attend the University of Washington, where she plans to study environmental science.
She envisions herself as a field expert, working behind the scenes to affect the changes needed to battle the ongoing environmental calamities.
“I really want to be able to influence environmental policy and work toward these specific changes that seem to be the major solution for mitigating climate change,” she said. “I want to have some role in that.”
It will be her first time living in a big city, which she says will be a “stark change” from her hometown.
She says she is excited about exploring the city, and discovering new people and opportunities.
“I think it will be easier to find people that I connect to on the basis of interest rather than just having classes together,” she says. “I’m excited to meet people who share similar interests and backgrounds with me.”
Yeaman played volleyball for all four years at the school, including in her sophomore year when her team took the Division 4 state championship. She remembers fondly her school coming to see that game.
“That warmed my heart,” she said. “It was the first time I really felt I was in high school, because it was this big school event I was really a part of.”
While Yeaman won’t play for the college, she plans to find an intramural team, and to seek out beach volleyball games when she can.
In addition to volleyball, she was a part of the school’s Bring Change to Mind Club, which spreads awareness of mental health and mental illness. That helped her deal with the stress of her freshman year, she says.
“I think it’s important that all high schools have that kind of program,” she said.
Yeaman gave a shout-out to her English teacher Melisa Silver.
“She helped me put the fun back into writing, which is a hard thing to accomplish,” she said.
