Ready to grow: Walla Walla area high school seniors talk about life in the Valley, their outlook for the future

Hundreds of Walla Walla Valley high school students will soon pass a milestone in life, each donning a ceremonial cap and gown and listening to the words of wisdom of inspiring speakers.

Graduation season in Walla Walla Valley is beginning.

The high school Class of 2026 is a part of Generation Z; the majority of this wave born in 2008 and enduring the stress of COVID-19 during their middle school years.

Gen Zers are described as pragmatic, self-driven and socially conscious, according to the Britannica website.

The U-B spoke to three random graduating seniors about their journeys growing up in the Valley and what they hope for in the future.

Allyiah Astorga

College Place High School senior Allyiah Astorga said she was a baby when her mother graduated high school. Now Astorga's upcoming graduation holds special meaning.

"She (my mom) is graduating with her master's degree this year," Astorga said. "It's pretty cool to be able to graduate the same year as my mom. Obviously, I'm in high school; she's doing college, but we've definitely both helped each other with our school. We've both been on each other's butts about everything."

As she looks to life post-graduation, Astorga said she does get anxiety about any possible future pandemics or health outbreaks.

"I don't want a redo of COVID where everything just shuts down," Astorga said. "I just try not to have to worry about things that are out of my control."

This fall, Astorga will attend Washington State University in Pullman to study criminology. She said she was inspired to take up the study because she wants to eventually become a victim advocate.

While visiting the Pullman campus, Astorga found it "so exciting and exhilarating."

She also chose criminal justice because of her passion for working with kids. Since 15, Astorga has worked at the YMCA through the after-school program supporting children up to age 12.

Astorga attended Walla Walla Valley Academy from second to 10th grade. For her junior year, she joined the Running Start program at Walla Walla Community College and now Astorga is finishing her senior year at College Place High School.

Although she said Running Start was not the best fit for her, one year in the program "was a good experience" that helped her become more prepared and a self-starter in a university setting. After college, Astorga said she wants to try living some place new.

"I don't need to leave the state, but I feel like being able to leave for college will open up the opportunity for me to get out and go somewhere else for job opportunities," Astorga said.

Astorga said she is grateful for the care she gets from her family.

"I have a lot of family that didn't go to college either right out of high school or at all," Astorga said. "And I feel like my family's very proud that I was able to finish high school and I'm now going to college. I just love that I have this support system that's there and I don't feel like I'm doing this on my own."

Alan Campos-Ontiveros

DeSales High School senior Alan Campos-Ontiveros said that he would describe his graduating class of 18 people as a group that tries not to take themselves too seriously.

"I love my class. I think it might be hard to say that, and it sounds cliche and whatever. But I do really have a deep sense of love for them because I've grown up with them," Campos-Ontiveros said. "These are people that have known me since I was in fourth grade."

A Mexican-American, Campos-Ontiveros was born and raised in the Walla Walla Valley. He called Walla Walla the "Goldilocks zone," the perfect size.

"The part where I live in town, there's a lot of Hispanic community. It's what I grew up with. We would always play soccer at Washington Park," Campos-Ontiveros said. "I grew up around a lot of people. I wasn't somebody that was just at home doing nothing."

He also values his Catholic faith and upbringing through the Walla Walla Catholic Schools system where he can look at different issues from morality to AI through his own faith-based lens. For Campos-Ontiveros, AI is something that has become part of people's daily lives, but he believes AI should never get into a place where it replaces human morality and human interaction.

"I don't believe that AI can replace a person because I believe that people were made in the image of God and, a robot wasn't, it's a man-made thing," he said.

Campos-Ontiveros said he hopes that one day he will give back to the school system that positively impacted him. A highlight during his high school experience was being a leader on the DeSales football team, which won a state title in 2025.

"I'm really excited to enter a new chapter in my life, but I don't think that just because I'm excited, I'm necessarily ready completely to leave everything behind because I really like Walla Walla," said Campos-Ontiveros.

Starting in the fall, Campos-Ontiveros will major in kinesiology and compete in Pacific University's football and track and field teams.

A dream Campos-Ontiveros said he has for the future is to come back to Walla Walla and "open up a physical therapy clinic here for high school and college athletes around the area."

Kourtenay Driver

Walla Walla High School senior Kourtenay Driver is ready to spread her wings far beyond Walla Walla.

Driver will attend Grand Canyon University in Phoenix in the fall, where she plans to major in film and media and minor in broadcasting. She's excited to live in a warm place and learn how to work in a creative industry.

"I think I'm made for a bigger town," she said. "I want to chase my dreams."

However, Driver said she feels the pressure and fear that AI could take away career opportunities. She sees some of her peers using AI to write essays or submit college applications.

"But I think for me, I tend not to because I don't want to give into that," Driver said. "That's just going to take away my creativity. It's kind of frustrating when I do see AI use. It's frustrating and it's disappointing because it's like, you can make that. You thought of it. You put it in the (AI) prompt. Why don't you just make it yourself?"

Born and raised in Walla Walla, Driver grew up helping her parents run the Baskin Robbins until the family sold the shop two years ago. Driver said while she's ready to leave the Valley behind, it's hard to leave her sister, Molly, a Wa-Hi sophomore.

"We just don't talk about it because she gets sad. It's the first time we've ever been apart," she said.

During her high school career, Driver was deeply involved in Wa-Hi's drama department. Some highlights include performing in "Little Women," "Saltworms," "Antigone" and "Frozen". Driver said her favorite part about acting is getting to be someone else.

"I think doing theater for as long as I have has made me very emotionally aware because you have to feel the field. I think I've learned to understand what upsets me and what doesn't upset me," Driver said. "It helped me be emotionally intelligent."

Known as Wa-Hi's Black Box, theater students rehearse hours on end for their performances.

"You become a family within probably two weeks," Driver said. "You're in a building with people for so long, every single day after school. You can always lean on one of them."

In a graduating class of more than 400 students, Driver's classmates are finishing high school after going through the COVID-19 lockdown in middle school. She was in sixth grade when school went virtual.

"When I heard two weeks off, I was like, 'Hell yeah, two weeks off.' And then it became the entire year and I was like, 'Oh, this is awful,'" Driver said. "I hate not being able to socialize with people."

She said middle school was already an awkward time, and it was made even more awkward when her classmates did not see each other in person until eighth grade. But she also said that is why she felt like her graduating class has a lot of camaraderie with each other.

"I really like my class. We got to freshman year, and I think that's why our class is so close because everyone just wanted to be friends with everyone," Driver said.

Copyright 2026 Tribune Content Agency. All Rights Reserved.