This year’s winner of Presentation High School’s Nano Nagle Award has followed the example set by the founder of the Willow Glen private girls school, for whom the award is named.
As president of the Associated Student Body, Grace Gallegos led Presentation’s annual Fall Food Drive. Students contribute food to the drive, but they also canvas their neighborhood for donations.
“Each year we collect canned food and frozen turkeys over a period of months to benefit Sacred Heart Community Service,” said. Gallegos, who is valedictorian of the Class of 2023. “Every year, it is always hard to keep motivation going during the drive. We have to continually emphasize the reason as to why we do this.”
Nano Nagle was motivated by the poverty she saw in her native Ireland, where she provided food and medicine to the infirm. She founded the first Presentation Convent in Cork, Ireland, in 1775.
To help keep Presentation students healthy, Gallegos collected data to help them create a work-life balance. “There can be stress and academic pressure at the high school level,” said Gallegos, who will be attending UCLA and is interested in studying public affairs.
Romina Jaitley is another student who exemplifies the spirit of Presentation. Her passions are water polo and dance.
“Among the really big things I did in high school was water polo all three years,” said Jaitley. During that time frame, Presentation won the Central Coast Section for the first time in the school’s history and went to the state championships. “This was a big introduction to the Presentation community. The people here are collaborative, kind and fun.”
Dance is another passion. She began learning various dance forms as a child and later focused on the traditional Bharata Natyam of India. She teaches dance at a school located in Almaden Valley. “It is my way of giving back to the community,” Jaitley said.
Volunteer work has been another area of focus. For the past three years Jaitley was a policy intern at the National Center for Youth Law, which fights systemic racism and inequality in the juvenile justice system.
“There were kids who were only 12 or 13 there!” she said. “The big part of my volunteer work is that I personally tried to focus on mental health and rehabilitation.”
Given the how competitive high school can be, that kind of support is essential for student success.
“Presentation’s counseling department, the faculty and the administration are very supportive regarding mental health,” said Jaitley, who will be attending Stanford University.
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