May 11, 2007
Community service feeds Diana Gomez’ fire

Diana Gomez, during the bulk of her school career, was “mostly shy” and not very involved. That is, until she started Lehman High School.

Diana, a LHS graduating senior, attended Kyle Elementary, Kyle Intermediate, Wallace Middle and Barton Junior High. As a freshman at Hays High School (when enrollment at that school was 2,300), Diana “felt like an ant in a big anthill.”

“It wasn’t until I entered Lehman that I really got involved, when I realized I could make a difference,” she said. “It was so exciting to go to Lehman, to a new high school. It was the best decision. At Hays, I was definitely under the radar. So many of the traditions already were in place. At Lehman, I could start the traditions.”

Diana has served as president of the National Honor Society (NHS) since her sophomore year. She has been vice president of her class for the past two years and has been a member of the Hays Community Youth Council (CYC) for the past two years. She is graduating in the Top 10 percent of her class and is a member of the LHS French Club and French Honor Society.

And it has been through the NHS that Diana found her true fire.

At Wallace, Jim Cullen, Texas history teacher, took his classes to the Kyle cemetery every year, Diana explained.

“Two friends and I saw some graves that were set apart,” she said, They were overgrown with brush and unkempt. “It was behind a fence and it was the slave cemetery, still segregated.”

“I felt bad about that,” she said. “We know what it’s like to be excluded. These people had lives, too.”

Time passed, and the exclusion issue kept bothering Diana. With Cullen’s support and assistance, several of the NHS students located another cemetery that was overrun with brush.

“There were eight NHS members working and by the end of the morning, we had taken down all of the stalks, which were eight to 12 feet tall,” she said. “I was amazed at how hard everyone worked. Each time we uncovered a marker, Mr. Cullen would take a moment and talk about it with us.”

The effort was so successful, she said, that the NHS has adopted the cemetery to keep up in the future.

“Some of the neighbors near the cemetery didn’t even know it was there,” she said.

Diana has been accepted to Brown University and though she’s excited about the whole new world in front of her, she has plenty of trepidation.

“I’m excited, but I couldn’t help but think, maybe they made a mistake,” she said. “I’m learning to cope with the fact that I’m not normal.”

The excitement is based on the feeling that she will have opportunities to meet people different from the small, but growing town of Kyle.

“There will be people of every race, every origin, every religion,” she said. “It will be a challenge to meet the others and to learn from the differences they all have. I want to know more. My biggest fear is dying without knowing as much as I could, without knowing, ‘What is my purpose?’”

Admitting she “thinks too much I scare myself sometimes,” an astronomy class at Lehman opened her eyes to an even greater world.

“The thought that we are a small speck on another small speck in an infinite universe sort of puts everyday worries into a new perspective,” she said. “So much is out there beyond us.”

Though she isn’t sure of what she will major in at Brown, she can rattle off a few ideas: “Psychology, maybe, law or history, and since that astronomy class, maybe philosophy!”

Whichever she chooses, be sure she will go after it with gusto.

A medical condition that periodically delivers a great deal of pain, has taught her perseverance and gratitude.

“That disability has hindered me from doing other things,” she said, “but I am extremely grateful for it. There is a lot of pain, but I know it is one roadblock and I have overcome it. I will use that power to overcome other roadblocks that come my way. It taught me perseverance.”

“When I think of trivial things that bother me, I think about when I get sick and it brings me back to home base,” she said. “I am humbled. There are other people who get sick as well. Everything is put into perspective.”

Somehow, trivial is not a word that fits into the story of Diana Gomez. If it should slip in, however, you can be sure that with her open mind, open heart and perseverance, it won’t stay long.
  

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April 19, 2007
HHS senior sees bright future

Jessica Espinoza, senior at Hays High School (HHS), has participated in more singing and acting productions throughout her school career than the average student.

She has been singing “since forever” and is happy to be involved in so many theater activities, even though each one requires time outside the school day in rehearsals and practices, because “I don’t consider it work.”

And though she clearly enjoys talking about the roles she has played and the parts she has sung, she’s not so comfortable talking about the accolades. Invariably, she will tell you about her friends’ and fellow cast members’ successes. She recalls as easily as her own, their awards and recognition.

Deflecting praise is something Jessica is as adept at as learning new parts, noting the “victories for all of us. The best feeling is riding home on the bus after a successful competition.”

Though she has received plenty of recognition, including: All Region Choir in 2006 and 2007; Organization of American Kodály National (OAKE) Honor Choirs for many years; 1^st Division ratings throughout high school in UIL Solo and Ensemble competition; and Sweepstakes trophies as part of choirs in UIL Concert and Sightreading competition.

Winning sightreading competition is particularly unique in that Jessica is blind.

“She works so hard on her music,” said Nancy Cavendish, HHS Choir Director. “Other students can, of course read the music. Jessica has to listen to it as we are learning it and memorize not only the words, but her part, which is alto. The alto part is not the melody line and is much harder to learn.”

Students are selected for the OAKE National Choirs, in part, based on audition tapes.

For her tape this year, Jessica said, she had to concentrate on “keeping my pitch. You can’t bust out. You have to keep your voice restrained. This, most-decidedly, is not about you.”

Holding back is one of Jessica’s challenges, she’ll admit.

“As a singer I have to learn to listen,” she said. “If I listen, I understand the part better.”

“Jessica never takes offense if I ask her to sing softer or if I have any other suggestions,” Mrs. Cavendish said. “She is always upbeat and extremely polite and concerned about others. She is one of the most special students I have ever had. She is easily one of the most ‘teachable’ students I have ever had.”

Musicals, which blend the singing and acting, capture Jessica’s interests. She was Glenda the Good Witch in Wizard of Oz as a sophomore, had a lead role in Oklahoma! and a part in this year’s production of Bye Bye Birdie.

“I’ve been a fan of musicals all my life,” she said, adding the intense rehearsals are one of the genre’s biggest draws. “The thing about musicals is the combined, huge efforts from everyone. Costumes and sets from the art department, band students theater students…it is a massive achievement for everyone.”

Opera and musical theater have so much to offer, she says.

“The oldest opera can relate to the youngest person,” she said. “The basic emotion is always there. It’s the same with musical theater.”

Because the turnaround time for Braille scripts and music “is abysmal,” Jessica relies on computers and her mother to get the scripts ready for her to memorize. Her mother, HHS teacher Kerri Espinoza, scans the written scripts into the computer and emails it to Jessica’s computer, which has a program that translates the script into Braille.

“I try to learn as much of the script (not just one part), as possible through gradual memorization,” she said. “You can’t cram it. You have to learn a little at a time. Once you’ve learned the one little part, you can move on.”

This process takes “ages if you’re doing it by yourself,” she said.

Birdie was unique for Jessica because she didn’t score a lead role. But as she has done repeatedly throughout her young life, she turned that initial disappointment into a success.

“It was the most fun I’ve had in a role in my life,” she said. “It was surprisingly difficult for being pure comedy. I tried to pull back on my character, and in the end it was rewarding to do the role and do it right.”

Birdie was especially nostalgic, she said, because it began a “series of lasts.”

“I can’t stand to say goodbye,” she said. “I’m ready to leave high school, but I’m not ready to leave theater. I have been seeing the same people for forever. For two months we become a family. And we become great friends, too. It’s not just about the play.”

College is terrifying, she says, but she’s excited about being accepted in the music program at Southwestern University in Georgetown.

“I’m terrified I will not be able to meet college standards,” she said. “What if I’m not strong enough?”

“I will miss her terribly next year, but I am so excited she will be going to Southwestern,” Mrs. Cavendish said. “I think it is a perfect fit for her. I went with her to her audition and it is a beautiful old campus with a small student-teacher ratio. It is a highly ranked liberal arts college with an outstanding music department.”

Jessica’s intelligence, eloquence and generosity have served her well. When asked about potential feelings of isolation from her disability, though, she loses patience.

“The stereotype for disabled people is that they’re brooding, alone, attached to a computer. Blind people bend way too easily to that stereotype,” she said. “You have to make the extra effort to get out there and make friends. “That stupid barrier of difference is so easy to get past.”

A sense of humor helps, she says, as well as an ability “to take it in stride. Teflon. You have to be Teflon. Things still bother me, but they don’t go to my center like they used to.”

Clearly. She draws into that “Teflon” when describing one of her early acting experiences in the one-act play, The All Seeing Eye.

“It’s ironic,” she smiles. “I was the voice of the telescreen, which was a giant eyeball.”

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