SVHS honors Students of the Year

At Tuesday night’s school board meeting, Sonoma Valley High School honored Sarah Summers and Jonathan Wieland as Students of the year for 2012.  Wieland, you may recall, was featured in a just joan column in The Sun on December 1, 2011.  Joan Huguenard profiled Wieland’s senior project, so taken was she with the young man. Homeless for three years, he finally found a home at Hanna Boys Center, enrolling in SVHS and making friends instantly.  For his senior project, he focused on giving back to San Bruno, the community that helped keep him on his feet, collecting 500 pounds of clothing and 3000 pounds of food that was trucked to the local homeless shelter in that city.  At SVHS, Wieland played on the Varsity Dragon Football Team, wrestled and participated in 4H.  He works at Brocco’s Feed Barn, the No Name Café and, when not in school, works on a commercial crabbing and fishing boat.  The first Hanna boy to ever be named Student of the Year, Wieland is the only one of his 18 siblings to go to college.  He will attend Feather River College in Quincy, California where he will focus on wilderness education and eventually land a job in Alaska as a wildlife ranger.

Wieland shares the Student of the Year honor with Sarah Summers.  Summers will attend UCLA in the fall where she will major in World Arts and Culture.  She has a cumulative grade point average over 4.1 meaning she received only 3 Bs in all four years at SVHS.  Summers is a California Golden State Seal Merit Diploma recipient, and AP scholar with Honors, a Girls State Finalist.  She has also won numerous awards including the Student Creative Arts Award.  In addition to her academic prowess, Summers has been on the track team for four years and has also competed on the cross country team and the water polo team.  In addition, she has been involved with Sonoma Valley Youth Soccer and the community art dance theatre.

Despite her busy schedule, Sarah is a certified trainer with the Challenge Sonoma Adventure Ropes Course.  She has served on the Community Service and Environment Commission of Sonoma and is also an accomplished dancer and musician with a senior project that focused on composing and performing her own compositions in French.