By SHAYLA ESCUDERO/Lincoln Chronicle
Best friends Aurora Fee and Braxton Kavanaugh are nearly inseparable – they made sure they had all their classes together right up until senior year at Toledo High School. They got top grades, started a campus clean-up program, shared the title of class valedictorian, won scholarships, earned honors diplomas and plan to be roommates at Oregon State University in the fall.
But four years ago, going to college felt like an impossible dream.
“As a freshman I wasn’t really thinking about the future, I was thinking the world was going to end,” Fee said.
Lincoln County’s class of 2025 started their first year of high school with masks and social distancing. A student newspaper article by Newport High School seniors has a timeline of notable events the last four years. While the class of 2025 was in high school, Russia invaded Ukraine, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Donald Trump was re-elected president and Tik-Tok was banned for 12 hours.
On Friday night and again Saturday, their high school journeys will end with graduation ceremonies at Lincoln County’s four high schools and two charter schools. In all, 410 seniors will be receiving their diplomas in Toledo, Waldport, Newport, Lincoln City, Siletz and Eddyville.
While those seniors are the last class to have their high school years changed by pandemic protocols, there were other hurdles to face.
Fee calls herself cynical; others use the word pragmatic. To attend Oregon State University, it would cost about $35,000 a year. As a child of a single mother that cost was insurmountable and other adults in her life discouraged the practicality of college. So, Fee made up her mind – as much as she wanted to, she wasn’t going to college.
As a freshman, Kavanaugh wasn’t thinking much about the future either. Choosing what you want to do with your life is daunting and he didn’t want to think about what college he wanted to go to, much less how to manage paying for it. But like Fee, he loved to learn. No one expected them to get good grades or would be upset if they weren’t at the top of their class.
That motivation came from within.
Their friendship was sometimes competitive and they motivated each other to do better. The result is seen throughout Toledo High School. In the classrooms, detailed drawings of dinosaurs decorate white boards. In the hall, buckets and trash grabbers sit on a table encouraging students to pick up litter they see. At the school’s entrance, their artwork sits side by side in a glass case.
They had heard the words grants and scholarships, but they felt abstract and intangible. During their junior year, there were many assignments that asked students to think about the future. They entertained the questions, wrote down what felt like imagined scenarios, and felt a little envious of any student who didn’t have to weigh their dreams against financial practicalities.
GEAR UP at two schools
Fee and Kavanaugh had given up on the idea of college. But a federal, grant-funded program called GEAR-UP that exposes underserved students in rural areas to college and careers helped change their minds.
College pennants line the walls inside Toledo High School’s college and career center. There are posters with encouraging words and Fee and Kavanaugh’s dinosaur drawings everywhere.
GEAR UP stands for Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs.
“It’s specifically for rural, underserved communities,” said Jen Hamilton, the program’s coordinator at Toledo High. “And there’s eight schools in Oregon that are receiving it right now, and that changes every seven years, depending on, of course, on the availability of federal funds.”
Toledo is in the third year of a seven-year federal grant, receiving over $100,000 annually. Waldport High School is also in the third year of the program.
But like most federally funded grant programs, GEAR UP has an uncertain future amid the Trump Administration’s proposed federal budget cuts.
“We just keep doing our job until we are told otherwise,” Hamilton said.
Through the program, 7-12 grade students are matched with mentors, go on field trips to colleges, hear from guest speakers in various careers, receive assistance applying for scholarships grants, and are given a support system to help plan their futures.
Hamilton said sometimes just having someone there to encourage a student or believe in them is what helps kids make important decisions about their futures. Several volunteers consistently come to Toledo’s college and career center, such as school board member and former teacher Peter Vince and Ron Brocklehurst, who started the Rising Star Scholarship award. Sometimes they bring advice, or food and $2 bills.
As a mentor, Brocklehurst gradually noticed a change in Fee and Kavanaugh. They went from being unsure of themselves and their futures to helping other students write their college essays and encouraging their peers to dream wider.
“A lot of kids, they just aren’t motivated to do well academically because they’re trying to survive at home,” Fee said, “And a lot of kids feel like they don’t have someone to care for them, to look out for them.”
In Toledo, there is also an attitude of not feeling like college is a practical or useful thing, Hamilton said. She likes to challenge that assumption while also encouraging students to go after a career that feels like the right fit for them.
“GEAR UP defines college as any education after high school. It can be a certificate, it can be a trade school, it can be an apprenticeship, it can be anything that sets you up for a career,” Hamilton said.
Of the school’s 47 graduates this year, Hamilton said 22 are going on to continue their education — 10 to a community college, four to trade schools and eight to four-year colleges.
Next steps
The program helped Fee and Kavanaugh apply for colleges, grants and scholarships. Hamilton is always scouting for different scholarships and sending them to students – often opportunities based on their interests and backgrounds.
The program also gave Fee the chance to meet someone in her dream career – a wildlife biologist. Suddenly that dreaded question on the school assignments didn’t feel like something she made up. It was real, and it could be hers.
While Fee felt drawn to a particular career, Kavanaugh felt pulled to the idea of expanding his education.
“I really do like to learn, ” he said, “I like to learn as much as I can, whatever I can.”
College started to feel like a real possibility after learning about scholarships and grants. Kavanaugh, who is a member of the Siletz Tribe, received scholarships from the Tribe, among other scholarships covering his college tuition and expenses. Fee also won’t have to pay out of pocket for college with the plethora of scholarships she earned this year.
“I’m trying to imagine a reality where I didn’t encounter any of this,” Fee said. “And honestly, I don’t even know if I’d be going to university.”
Both will be attending Oregon State in the fall and hope to be roommates. Fee is majoring in fisheries and wildlife and Kavanaugh in biology.
“It feels a little existential,” Kavanaugh said about not being a high school student anymore.
As the pair walk through the hallway, they pass their classmates — a graduating class of 47. Posters with encouraging messages are plastered on lockers and there is a general feeling of anticipation.
In the last days of their senior year, Fee and Kavanaugh take part in senior traditions – field trips, good natured pranks, and signing yearbooks.
The days ahead may have tearful goodbyes, but mostly there is excitement for the future.
Graduations
Toledo Jr/Sr High School
4 p.m. Friday, June 6 at the high school
Graduates: 47
Valedictorians: Aurora Fee and Braxton Kavanaugh
Salutatorian: Avery Fourier
Waldport Middle/High School
6:30 p.m. Friday, June 6 at the high school
Graduates: 47
Valedictorian: Alex Herd
Salutatorian: Mariah Mobley
Taft 7-12
10:25 a.m. Saturday, June 7 at the high school
Graduates 131
Valedictorians: Jaquelyn Cortez-Jimenez, Hazel Fiedler, Alexandra Hernandez-Hernandez, Sienna Lillebo, and Aiden Smith
Salutatorian: Ximena Sanchez-Lopez
Newport High
5 p.m. Saturday, June 7 at the high school
Graduates: 152
Valedictorians: Finn Collson, Andiah Johnson, Elise Keck, Peyton Klem, Noah Larsen, William Postlewait, Matthew Rash, Leonardo Roller, Rachel Schones, and Emilie Wiese.
Salutatorians: Emry Belloni, Austin Le and Jhonatan Reza
Eddyville Charter
6 p.m. Friday, June 6
Graduates: 10
Valedictorian: Shaylene Borton
Salutatorian: Riley Mekemson
Siletz Valley Charter
2 p.m. Saturday, June 7
Graduates: 23
Valedictorian: Cash Adams
Salutatorian: Tamiya Yanez
- Shayla Escudero covers Lincoln County government, education, Newport, housing and social services for Lincoln Chronicle and can be reached at Shayla@LincolnChronicle.org
Congratulations, graduating Class of 2025!
Blessings, and may your edifying dreams come true!