NEWPORT HARBOR HIGH SCHOOL: Ready to move on

Editor’s note: In celebration of graduation day, the Daily Pilot spotlights two outstanding students from each of the Newport-Mesa Unified School District’s five high schools. For video of the students, click here.

The stereotypes of high school are well-documented. Gossip, drama and difficulty with friends have been a staple of the teen experience in the media — and no school may know this more than Newport Harbor High School, which recently became the subject of its own reality TV show.

But despite the problems one may encounter throughout high school, leaving friends and school behind is no easy task — just ask Catherine Storch.

“I really thought I was just going to be done with high school, teachers, friends and move on,” Storch, 17, said. “Now that it is winding down, it really isn’t easy to say goodbye, and I wasn’t expecting that at all. I learned that people are so much more important than you give them credit for.”

Storch will graduate today from the school, and as many high school students and graduates may recall themselves, it wasn’t always easy being a teenager.

“I am not going to miss kids who think they are too cool for school,” Storch said. “The high school cliché kids, trying to be popular. It’s so overdone. Just get over it.”

But despite the hard times, Storch — who was prom queen and a valedictorian — had a late moment of sentimentality in her final days at Newport Harbor.

In her English class, students had to give a graduation speech as one of their final assignments. Storch listened intently, and the words affected her.

“It put everything in perspective,” she said. “Not only is this over and you could never see this person again, but it makes you appreciate this person a lot more.”

A Newport Beach resident her entire life, Storch is ready to “get out of the bubble” when she attends Stanford in the fall, the same as her older sister, Annabelle, and father, John.

“I am hoping all the gossip will die down a little bit,” Storch said.

Looking past Orange County, to the world

Despite living in Southern California his entire life, Ben Kane knows there is more out there than Newport Beach.

He has seen children living in poverty, surviving in the harshest conditions when he travels with his mother, Cathy Lam, to Vietnam on humanitarian efforts.

But he has seen those same people welcome him into their home, opening their doors and lives to him despite their living conditions.

He knows different countries offer varying perspectives on the world, from Iran to Vietnam, as he learned as part of the Model United Nations team at Newport Harbor High School.

And it is that wealth of perspective he will leave Newport Harbor with when he graduates today.

“I guess you look at everything and don’t take things for granted,” Kane, 17, said. “I pay more attention to things going on in the world.”

Kane has always been something of a journeyman. His parents took him out of school for eight months in the fifth grade to travel the world with their son.

He calls it the best experience of his life.

“So many kids in America don’t know of the world outside of America,” he said. “It can really open your eyes to the world around you.”

So, when Kane had the decision to go to school at UCLA or Williams College in Williamstown, Mass., he chose the place he doesn’t know.

“Thought I should try something different,” Kane said. “If I didn’t try it in college, thought I never would.”

Kane eventually plans to study abroad, hopefully in Spain. But just because his ambitions take him farther away from home, it doesn’t mean he won’t miss the life he knows.

“[Newport Harbor] has its faults, but I like the school a lot,” Kane said. “I have met really good friends there. The academics are really good, and they have very good, inspiring teachers.”

SCHOOL STATS

VALEDICTORIANS: Madeline Bury, Catherine Storch, Ryan McKennon, Mathew Bissonnette, Ben Kane, Rebecca Brown, Jessica Brostek, Michael Puncel, Joshua Dill, Catherine Regan, Rachel Maher, Quinn Yanagam and Emily Gelbaum.

CLASS SIZE: 532

GRADUATION RATE: 99%

PERCENT OF SENIORS GOING TO COLLEGE: 93%

HOMECOMING KING AND QUEEN: Marisol Zambrano (no homecoming king)

PROM KING AND QUEEN: Henry Pyle and Catherine Storch

DANIEL TEDFORD may be reached at (714) 966-4632 or at daniel.tedford@latimes.com.