Idaho Voices

From an early age Aubree Dinning’s parents noticed a disciplined, even diplomatic quality in their oldest daughter. That unwavering determination has been a running theme throughout the Lake City High School valedictorian’s life, from her approach to school, where her stellar scholastic career will wrap with a whopping 4.6 grade-point average, to the various student council and National Honor Society posts Dinning’s held over the last four years. Someday, those who know Dinning say, those characteristics could very well shine on the world stage of international relations.

While many students take on the dual responsibilities of employment and schoolwork, not many support themselves entirely on their own. Even fewer hope to sponsor a third-world child when they have yet to cross the adult threshold. Not for Coeur d’Alene High School’s Amy LeBaron, who was scheduled to graduate June 5. She’s been self-sufficient for a while now. Five years and counting, in fact.

Christina Abrahamson’s journey to high school graduation began in 2003, when she started at Lakeside High School in Plummer. After nearly two years of struggling to fit in, she dropped out of Lakeside and transferred to an alternative school in Spokane Valley. Eventually, she moved in with her grandparents on the Spokane Indian Reservation and attended Alliance Alternative School in Wellpinit, Wash., for her junior year.

For many students, high school is all about drama. For Stephen Sloniker, a Post Falls High School graduate, school was where he could leave the drama of his family life behind and find success. Sloniker, 18, was born in Eastern Washington but spent most of his childhood in Missouri. He relocated to Post Falls two years ago to be with extended family after his father was convicted of burglary and sentenced to five to eight years in a Kansas prison.

Kourtney Otamendi is the outstanding senior of the year at New Vision High School, Post Fall’s alternative high school. Hers was an unusual upbringing. It was not the idyllic picket fence, family dog, nuclear family picture. She lived with a foster family in Dallesport, Wash., for four years, until her aunt, Regina Lind, received her foster care license and was able to take in Kourtney, 19, and her younger sister, Whitney, 18, during Kourtney’s freshman year. Lind lived in Athol at the time, then moved to Post Falls.

Packing up the car to go off to college will be a little more of a challenge for Jacob Craner than the typical high school graduate. And a dorm room? Forget it. It will be much too small. The 18-year-old Sandpoint High School senior plans to leave Oct. 2 to attend the Conservatory of Recording Arts and Sciences in Arizona. During the 10-month program, eight of which are training and education and the remaining two an internship, Craner’s keyboard, drum set and guitar will take the place of textbooks.