A decade of achievement

We catch up with our first class of 'Academic All-Stars' winners.

Published online on Saturday, May. 12, 2007

In 1996, The Fresno Bee launched an annual feature to honor the best and brightest students in the Central Valley.

Judges -- teachers and newspaper staff members -- selected a dozen "Academic All-Stars," one for each of the 12 grade levels. Students were chosen based on academic achievement, community involvement and leadership.

This year, more than a decade later, we decided to catch up with our first class of winners. Where are they now?

Five are college graduates. Three are in college. One is a new mother, one is unemployed and another continues in a special education class. The youngest is a senior in high school.

Their collective academic pedigree includes Harvard, Princeton, the University of California campuses, California State University, Fresno, and the University of Southern California.

Most still live in California -- seven are in the Central Valley -- while a few live outside the Golden State in Texas, Arkansas and Illinois.

Grace Liu, for example, is a lawyer in Chicago. Steve Warmerdam works for a software company in Texas.

Elisa Diel is a nurse in Fresno. Victoria Luna Cruz just had her first child. And Daniel Nash is unemployed, still searching for his path.

We learned a few things. Students closest to high school graduation, for example, were better at predicting their academic and professional futures. And childhood dreams of flying into space or playing professional hockey are often just that: dreams.

Her plan realized

As a senior at Edison High School, Grace Liu already was bound for Harvard University when she was named one of The Bee's first Academic All-Stars.

Liu's enviable list of accomplishments was longer than most. She was a class valedictorian, a perennial champ in science competitions and a collector of college scholarships.

Still, Liu said, it was "a great honor" to be part of the first All-Star class.

Brad Huff, one of Liu's math teachers at Edison and one-time science coordinator for the Fresno County Office of Education, remembers her as a self-effacing, well-rounded student who "enjoyed learning and enjoyed being with other kids."

After high school, Liu went to Harvard and earned a degree in biology in 2000. Liu, now 29, said attending the university "had been my plan since the beginning of high school."

After deciding against a career in scientific research, Liu headed to the University of Chicago and received a law degree in 2004. She now works as a lawyer in Chicago, where she's lived for about five years. Last year, Liu said, she devoted time to working with Christian campus groups and students in Texas. She spent about seven months helping organize events and connect students with churches.

"I took a break," Liu said of her career. Now she's back at work with a law firm in a practice largely focused on patent litigation.

Texas transplant

There was a time when Steve Warmerdam thought he'd live in California all his life.

Today, the former Academic All-Star and Reedley resident makes his home in Austin, Texas, with wife Corina and young son Daniel. College and work prodded Warmerdam to relocate.

"The job market and the housing market both are much better for me here," he said.

Warmerdam, 28, was a junior at Reedley High School when he was named an All-Star. He recalled it as an honor and said people occasionally recognized him from his newspaper photograph.

Soon, Warmerdam joked, "the extreme celebrity died down."

In high school, he played tennis and basketball and enrolled in teacher Don Friesen's advanced math curriculum.