Grace Asleson, the daughter of Carol Swenson and Roger Asleson of Yountville, graduated on June 10, 2009, from Napa High School with distinction. Selected senior speaker for Napa High’s commencement ceremony, she excelled both in academics and extracurricular activities.

Defense attorney on Napa High’s county-winning mock trial team, she was active in jazz dance all four years at Napa and served as a teaching assistant for Jazz II in her senior year. As founder and president of Napa High’s Invisible Children Club, Grace coordinated the collection of more than 5,000 books and $3,000 to benefit an impoverished secondary school in northern Uganda.

A two-time winner in the short fiction category of the Jessamyn West creative writing contest sponsored by Napa Valley College, Grace received the American Association of University Women’s scholarship as well as Napa High’s English Scholar Award. Other honors included the California Scholarship Federation’s lifetime award, the Napa Sunrise Rotary Student of the Month award for September 2008, the Bank of America Achievement award in Liberal Arts, and Napa High’s Elizabeth McCreary Memorial Scholarship. Grace also received generous hometown scholarships from Yountville Focus and the Kiwanis Club in Yountville. Grace has been accepted at Wesleyan University for the fall term.