Among other things, Vashon is known for its talented and driven young students. 

Just flip through the Class of 2011 special section that came in last week’s newspaper, and you’ll read about budding writers and accomplished athletes,  artists and farmers, scientists and humanitarians — young people eager to say a heartfelt goodbye to Vashon and make their mark on the world. 

The Beachcomber chose five teens among the many Vashon graduates who seem bound for success and asked them about  their dreams for their futures. We hope you’ll enjoy their stories as much as we do.

Zach Stackhouse: An athlete eager to serve 

At first glance, Zach Stackhouse seems like a stereotypical high school athlete. A football player all four years, he also played basketball, wrestled and was the lacrosse team captain his senior year. But those close to Stackhouse know this high-achieving teen also has a keen intelligence and a lot of heart. And he’ll put all of those qualities to the test this fall as he enters one of the country’s top military colleges, The Citadel in South Carolina. 

While Stackhouse loved the camaraderie and brotherhood he found in high school sports, he also enjoyed participating in the school’s debate team, saying it challenged him intellectually .

“Just learning all about politics, the world around us today and current issues was really insightful,” he said.

And before Stackhouse decided that military service was for him, he was already serving the Vashon community as president of the school’s Key Club, where he said he learned and grew a lot.

“It was very beneficial not only to the community, but to me as a person,” he said. 

As a sophomore, Stackhouse was selected to attend an exclusive summer leadership seminar at West Point Military Academy in New York. 

“That’s when I really nailed down that I wanted to do the military,” he said.

Stackhouse’s grades, fitness level and interview performance earned him an ROTC scholarship that will cover his tuition at The Citadel. He will also join a select number of students at the school who will train with the ROTC in addition to conducting their regular studies.

Stackhouse’s participation in ROTC also means he will commit to four years of active duty in the army after graduating The Citadel, as well as another four years of active or reserve duty.

Stackhouse seemed calm and confident about committing the next dozen years of his life to the service at a time of much international conflict.

“For me it’s all about serving my country,” he said. “It’s something I really want to do and feel honored to be able to do. And it’s something I feel is necessary for myself to do.”

Stackhouse will apply his love of  politics at The Citadel, where he will work toward a bachelor’s degree in international affairs and military science. Though he isn’t sure if he is headed toward a career in the armed forces or will pursue something else after his commitment ends, he knows that he will spend his life serving in some way. 

“There are so many different paths I could see myself going down,” he said. “I hope it will be something where I’m doing big things for the world and my country.”

Olivia Sayvetz: Quick in the classroom, unbeatable on the water

When Olivia Sayvetz was younger, a family friend suggested she would be a good coxswain because she was small and loud.

“I said, ‘why not, I’ll try it out,’” Sayvetz said. 

Now a nationally ranked coxswain — the person who gives directions to rowers and sets the pace of a boat in crew — Sayvetz is preparing to head to Princeton University on a full-ride scholarship. But it’s not just her size and big personality that got her there. 

Sayvetz, who seems to pour herself into whatever she does and strives for excellence, earned a 3.989 GPA at VHS. Only an A- her freshman year kept her from a 4.0.

Sayvetz juggled schoolwork with crew practice throughout high school and was also editor of the school’s yearbook three years in a row, a task she said was time consuming but rewarding.

Though Sayvetz started in crew as a rower like everyone else, she found her niche as soon as she climbed into the stern of the boat as a coxswain. 

“I have a really good eye for the stroke and a good feel for what it should look like,” she said. “It’s such a unique roll that you play when you’re a leader, but at the same time you wouldn’t be anything without the people following you.”

Sayvetz took her boat to the junior national crew competition last year, where it placed fourth. One of her boats qualified for nationals again this year, but the competition fell on graduation weekend, and she opted to attend the graduation ceremony, where she addressed her class as the  valedictorian. 

Sayvetz didn’t need another national medal though. Her grades and skills as a coxswain caught the attention of some of the country’s top schools last fall, and she was recruited to join crew teams at such schools as Berkeley, Yale and Stanford. She ultimately chose Princeton after visiting the school and falling in love with its campus and laid-back students.

“The atmosphere there is so inviting,” she said.

Sayvetz is now at a high-pressure training camp in Connecticut, trying for a spot to compete with the USRowing Junior National Team at the world competition. 

“That is my absolute dream, to be on the team,” she said.

Even if she doesn’t make the team, nothing could damper Sayvetz’s excitement to be a part of Princeton’s tight-knit crew and the academic opportunities she believes the school will open for her. 

Sayvetz spent fourth and fifth grade living in the Caribbean while her father captained a charter boat there, and she believes the experience opened her eyes to the world at a young age. 

“The wealth and the contrasted poverty, and seeing how tourism affects places, it gave me a whole different perspective on everything,” she said.

Now Sayvetz is looking at a world of career possibilities as she prepares to attend an Ivy League school. The driven teen has considered a career in law and is also interested in international relations, a subject she enjoyed at VHS. But she says she’s entering Princeton with an open mind. 

“Who knows, maybe I’ll fall in love with physics,” she said.

Dylan Greene: Young musician drums his way to the top

When Dylan Greene was in middle school, he wrote in an essay that he wanted to study music in college. Looking back, Greene laughs about his naive interest in music school.

“I didn’t know anything about what that meant,” he said.

Though Greene has excelled playing an array of percussion instruments since middle school, he didn’t fully realize he wanted to make a career out of music until as a sophomore he was selected to participate in the All Northwest honor band. Greene was influenced by the band’s instructor, whom, he said, truly brought the music to life and passed on valuable advice to the budding musicians. 

“It was sort of a spiritual experience. … It really opened up my view of what was possible.”

Greene, who during high school earned his way to several other honor bands and placed at the state solo competition twice, is now preparing to study percussion performance at the University of Michigan — one of the top music schools in the country — on a nearly full-ride music scholarship.

Greene, who also excelled academically in high school, had his pick of some of the nation’s best percussion programs, but settled on the University of Michigan because of its reputation and a desire to have a new experience far away from Vashon. 

“I wanted to get as far out of state as I could,” Greene said. “Not just for the sense of getting out of state, but for really seeing what I can do by myself and sort of testing myself.”

As Greene prepares for his future, which he hopes will include a career as a professional musician and eventually as a college professor, he remains humble about his talent. Instead, he says he will be forever grateful for the musical experiences he was provided during his time on Vashon, including the chance to learn traditional African drumming in Ghana, open with his band Blueberry Frousting for a concert by hip-hop star Macklemore and, most recently, perform with the VHS band under the direction of Grammy Award-winning composer Christopher Tin. Especially meaningful, he said, was his time with the high school’s tight-knit percussion ensemble, led by VHS band director Ken Quehrn. 

“The same members have been together for three years; we’ve played a lot together and grown together and had lot of fun,” he said. “I like to call it our percussion family.”

Klara Shepherd: Broadening her world through travel

Klara Shepherd has always strayed slightly from the traditional path of those her age, and graduating high school hasn’t changed that.

Shepherd, who was born in Sweden and spent the first few months of her life there, grew up taking frequent trips to Sweden and other European countries to visit her extended family and friends and travel around with her British mother. As a child she was nearly fluent in Swedish.

“I love just seeing a little bit of another culture,” Shepherd said. “You can see that a little if you’re on vacation for a couple of weeks, but doing extended traveling, you can see that there are other ways to live.”

Shepherd’s horizons were truly broadened her sophomore year when she travelled to Europe by herself for the first time.

“It’s different than traveling with your mom,” she said. “You get to meet people and be spontaneous and do whatever comes up.”

Shepherd, who has lived on Vashon since sixth grade, has always had an independent streak. She loved attending VHS but was ready for something different after two years there. Her junior year she joined  Running Start, where she had more course options and earned two years of college credits while completing her high school degree. 

“It was a really great opportunity,” she said.

Shepherd, who spends much of her free time writing and practicing photography, said she still felt connected to the Vashon community through her work with the Vashon Youth Council, where she served as a board member throughout high school and is currently the board president. Though she was sad to recently announce the youth council’s closing, she says she feels fortunate for the experience that allowed her to touch Vashon youth and taught her about leadership.

“Just being in charge of something is really empowering. … You get to learn how to set an agenda and lead a meeting. I probably won’t do those things again until my professional career,” she said.

Though Shepherd isn’t sure what she’ll study during her final two years of college, she’s not too worried about it yet. In August she will leave Vashon to travel for a year before choosing a school.

“This is a good time to travel,” she said. “I’m not tied down by a job or anything.”

Shepherd plans to visit family and friends in Europe again, but says this time she may venture into Southeast Asia as well.

“It’s so cheap there, you can make your money last a lot longer.”

Shepherd, who has dual citizenship with Sweden, allowing her to live and work anywhere in the European Union, will also look at colleges abroad and hopes a year on her own will help her decide what direction she wants to take in life. 

She has thought of turning her passion for travel, writing and photography into a career, and is  considering a business degree, which she feels will be helpful no matter what she does. 

“Once you have those skills, you can market whatever you want to do for a living,” she said.

Avio Brooklyn: An outdoorsman writes his own adventure

Avio Brooklyn says he could never be happy with a career sitting behind a desk. Ever since his father took him camping as a young boy, he knew he belonged outside.

“I’ve been addicted to the outdoors ever since then, whether it’s on the water, in the mountains or somewhere else,” he said.

Brooklyn’s love for the outdoors merged with his desire to help others his sophomore year, when he trained to be a King County search and rescue volunteer and spent the summer responding to emergency calls from places such as Snoqualmie Pass and the North Cascades. He has also participated in Vashon Island Fire & Rescue’s Explorer program.

“I learned a lot about both the fire service and life in general,” he said of the program. “And it was a great way to connect with the community.”

Brooklyn, who says he loves Vashon but has always felt a tug to see the rest of the world, spent one year of high school as an exchange student in Italy. He called the experience life changing. 

“It gave me a really great perspective on global community,” he said. “When you live in a different country, you realize how small Vashon is, how big the world is and how everybody’s not all that different.”

Brooklyn doesn’t discount the rich experiences he’s had at home, though. Last summer he took his love of sailing to the next level when he joined the crew of the Lady Washington, which tours the West Coast and is a replica of a historic tall ship, and spent about a month assisting on deck and interacting with visitors to the ship. Besides enjoying the camaraderie of the ship’s 12-person team, Brooklyn said he loved the feeling of the open water. 

“It’s very peaceful when you’re out there,” he said. “You don’t get that anywhere else. Your movement is all controlled by the wind, and it’s a certain degree of release that you have to deal with whatever happens.”

Brooklyn will spend most of next fall on another tour with the Lady Washington, but first he’ll boost his emergency response skills at a wilderness emergency medical technician school. 

At the high-intensity school outside of Leavenworth, he will spend weekdays training and weekends on clinical rotations at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. Brooklyn says the hard work will be worth it, as he will leave the program as a nationally registered EMT and will also be certified to perform life-saving procedures on the open water.

Brooklyn plans to apply to colleges after his stint on the Lady Washington, but he’s not sure where his love of travel, the outdoors and helping others will take him. 

He’s interested in being a volunteer firefighter, would love to be an officer in the Marine Corps and could also see himself becoming a doctor. 

“I have lots of tentative plans. Nothing set in stone,” he said. “Too many ideas, too little time.”