Standout Grads 2006 -- Tough-love decision prods Kalama grad to success
Saturday, June 3, 2006 12:21 AM PDT
By Evan Caldwell
Printable version
E-mail this articleKalama High School senior Cody Traub's application to be a Cowlitz County 911 dispatcher includes a resume with a laundry list of experience in statewide school activities, community service projects and awards.
And the possible clincher? A personal letter of recommendation for the job from Gov. Christine Gregoire.
"I have a personal motivation to do more than anyone has ever done (at Kalama High) and not to stop," Traub said.
Traub didn't always have such a positive outlook on life. In middle school, he suffered severe depression and behavioral problems, attempting suicide on three occasions.
"I was taken away in an ambulance once for overdosing," he said. "But I realized it wasn't my time to go."
At rock bottom, his parents enrolled him in the Catherine Freer Wilderness Therapy Expeditions program, a 21-day hike through the Oregon Cascades in the middle of winter in 2002.
"It was one of the hardest things that I ever had to do," said Debi Traub, Cody's mother. "I know it was the right choice, a tough-love decision."
"Our goal was to find ourselves," Traub said. "I had 21 days to find out why I thought my like sucked so much ... but I realized that it wasn't so bad.
Four years later, Traub can claim he helped shape the Washington state high school curriculum and redesign high school student leadership roles statewide.
"People say don't be an overachiever, but I wanted to set my goals as high as I could," he said.
As a leader with the Washington Association of Student Councils, he helped create lesson plans to help upperclassmen teach freshmen about graduation requirements. Traub traveled throughout Southwest Washington to train students to run the program at their schools.
Traub even testified to the state Legislature about new issues facing students and worked with Gregoire's new 13-person Washington Learns Steering Committee, which identifies inefficiencies and gaps in the education system and proposes solutions.
He continues to work with organizations to encourage students to be more involved in school government. He's helped schools shape student council's to do more than "just posters in the hallway. To do community service and get a student representative on school boards," he said.
Nate Salisbury, one of Traub's teachers, said he is "extremely mature. You don't have a conversation with him like with other kids --- it's more like a peer-to-peer situation with him."
That maturity was evident after Traub met with Gov. Gregoire, Salisbury said.
"He meets with the Governor and the (Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction director Terry Bergeson) in one day and by the end of the day the Governor is saying, 'anything I can do to help you, you let me know,' " Salisbury said. "That kind of sums up Cody."
"A lot of people bounce around in what they want to do," Traub said.
Not Traub. He's been volunteering at the Kalama Police station for the past three years and wants to be a Washington State Patrol trooper. Traub said if he gets a job as a 911 dispatcher --- a high school diploma is needed to apply --- it should be a good stepping stone into a law enforcement career.
"When Cody was a little boy, a 3-year-old, I remember him walking around and he always had to have a play police belt on his hip," Debi Traub said. "We also had to buy a paper pad so he could write 'police tickets'."
Debi Traub said she has no doubt that her son will be some kind of leader someday. "It's who he is."
Salisbury agrees. "If he wants to be a trooper, I have no doubt he'll be a trooper. If he wants to governor someday, I have no doubt he will."
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