Like most times when there is a big (or small) deal happening in my life, I call my Mom. So this bio starts with me calling my Mom, even though she is looking down the barrel at age 80 and I am avoiding eye contact with 38, and asking her to find some impressive high school memories for me. Well, next thing I know, she backs her truck down to her basement and I find her loading boxes of things I had forgotten existed including report cards (rest assured, Summerville Hall of Fame Selection Committee, there were lots of “pleasure to have in class”es and a graduating GPA of 4.17), every notable newspaper clipping, old swim ribbons, cringey love letters, postcards from teachers, pictures, uniforms and much, much, more. As I have sorted through these memories, I keep coming back to the fact that I am so blessed and so lucky to have had so many people root for me, help shape me, and show me endless support and love over the years from this amazing community. So, thank you for the honor of selecting me as a Hall of Famer, but also thank you for giving me the gift of seeing this beautiful community and my wonderful experience as a Bear so clearly.
I came into high school a few weeks after a moderately serious car accident, feeling grateful that my face was not permanently disfigured, but very unsure of my place in this new world and pretty jumpy because I was sure that my Senior sister Danitra was going to “trashcan” me at any moment. I joined volleyball and was coached by my now coworker, Amy Peterson, who awarded me “Most Inspirational” on the team. I worked hard in my classes and learned how great it was to be a Bear. I tried out for soccer and made Varsity as a freshman and learned how to be a utility player all around the field. We played for the title of Division Champs, but got beat in the last game before clinching the title, even with one in a vermillion herself, Jordan Vermillion, on our team. I swam with TCA before high school and was asked to try out the sport of water polo when a family friend, Matt Personious, wanted to start a team up here. Along with one other girl, I joined a rowdy bunch of boys for the first Tuolumne County Water Polo team and traveled all over the state testing our skills. Eventually, after a lot of pressure and well timed bribes, I gathered enough friends (shoutout to Jenny Feriani Gray and Carolyn Haycock Reel, especially) to have the first all girls water polo team in the county and we were pretty good in a “The Big Green” movie type of way!
I joined clubs including Spanish Club with Ms. Encinas, visited colleges with CSF with Mr. deGennaro, went to leadership conferences with Soroptimist Club with Mrs. Hartford, Ecology Club where we baited trail cameras and hiked miles with Mr. Hohn, Ski Club with Mrs. Horak and probably more! As my four Bear years went on, I kept up with sports and academics, joining the Academic Decathlon and making the 9 person team that headed to State both my junior and senior years. We won third place statewide in 2006 and then, as the very best, spare-no-expense retirement gift for the very best teacher, we won first in state in 2007. You are welcome, deG! Meanwhile, I collected several All League titles, many Academic Letters, and even some captain stars in sports and in a bout of proving to myself that I could do hard things, I joined cross country my senior year. I graduated in 2007, amongst a tight knit, fun hounding, super smart class and was sent off into the world with a great foundation of knowledge and skills.
I attended UC Santa Barbara from 2007-2011 and graduated as one of ten “Outstanding Students in the Environmental Science Department” with a double major in Environmental Studies and Geography. In the best move I have ever made in my life, I got married to my cross town (Sonora Wildcat), high school and college sweetheart, Matt Griebel and we moved to San Diego. I got my secondary science teaching credential at San Diego State and started teaching downtown at San Diego High in 2012. We had our first daughter, Juniper, in August 2018 and promptly realized we had no idea what we were doing and needed our Moms and families and moved back to Tuolumne County in February 2019. I began teaching part time at our favorite high school, Summerville High, in the Fall of 2019. We had our second daughter, Olive, in June of 2021.
As a high school teacher myself, the younger sister of two more teachers in the county (Hi Cali and Josie- you guys are stars and are changing lives), and now seeing how big and important teachers and school are in my own daughters’ lives, I feel so grateful for Summerville High. This was the place where we got to find out who we were, and maybe who we were not. This place that gave me some of (my still) best friends who now I get to raise my kids alongside. This place is pretty special and I am grateful to have been a part of it then and a part of it still now as a teacher.