Graduate’s hard work marks years at SVHS

Ivan Yake found his niche at Spokane Valley High School.

At this nontraditional high school in the West Valley School District, Yake connected with teachers who helped him and encouraged his interests in working outdoors and designing Web pages.

In fact, staff at SVHS describes Yake as a gentle person who at a young age understands that his words and actions matter. Whether trimming Christmas trees at Carver Farms or supporting others in a Web design class, he is known as someone who gets the job done with a strong work ethic.

“I actually looked forward to coming here,” Yake said, in describing his transition from a traditional North Side high school to SVHS. “Teachers here ask, ‘Do you understand? Do you need help? And I’m willing to work with you outside of school to help you.’ “

“It was a whole new learning experience. It was one-on-one teaching if you needed it. Here I went from C’s to straight A’s because I was getting the help I needed.”

SVHS offers a program that blends traditional educational practices with alternative instructional strategies. Students are in class 25 hours per week, and academic progress is measured by performance outcomes and successful hours of participation in classroom activities.

After three years at SVHS, Yake finished all of his high school courses in the third quarter with a 4.0 grade-point average and already lined up a job at Appleway Chevrolet. In September, he plans to start at Spokane Community College to become a certified diesel mechanic. He hopes eventually to do work on heavy equipment such as tractors.

Yake is fascinated by the intricacies of diesel engines for their efficiency and durability as compared with their gas-burning counterparts. “Diesel burns hotter and it burns cleaner. You get almost twice the mileage than you get with a gas engine.”

However, he also does self-maintenance on his gasoline-burning 1979 GMC Jimmy.

One of his teachers, Scott Carver, gives Yake credit for his hard work. “We give kids all these opportunities,” Carver said. “Ivan’s seemed to grab every one of them and run with them. He can prune a Christmas tree like no one else.”

Yake has always felt drawn to the outdoors. From around age 9 to 12, he lived in Rosalia where he and other kids played constantly outside. Hearing kids today talk with greater interest about the latest computer game, he just shakes his head.

“I’d much rather be outside. I just got a dirt bike.” He also does snowboarding, paintball gun challenges and four-wheeling.

Even his jobs during high school involved being outdoors – part-time work in the spring and fall at Carver Farms and harvesting in Rosalia on a wheat farm.

At school, he took yearbook design, Web design and horticulture classes. He worked among a group of four students to design Web pages for the town of Millwood. Yake particularly likes learning about technology.

“I like to learn new things. You get to see it from both sides – what it takes to create a Web site and the finished product.”

He also is known around SVHS as someone always willing to help, even if that means coming in after school to support a teacher preparing for a big meeting. “If someone asks, ‘Can you help?’ I say, ‘Sure, no problem.’ “