Before Stagg, she had never believed that high schools actually had real cheerleaders.

“We ain’t never seen anything like that,” she said. When she first moved here from Oakland, she describes how “it was weird at first … it was like the TV life with the rivalries and rallies.”

Now, Thomisha “Mooshie” Wallace is Associated Student Body President, Homecoming Queen, and an accomplished athlete. She says that Matthew Soeth, ASB advisor, is actually the person who encouraged her to be more into school. “If it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t be in Leadership and I wouldn’t be so involved.”

Soeth describes Wallace as a smart, good person, and a hard worker with a big smile. He says, “She’s a very capable, very intelligent young woman, and I know she’s going to be very successful wherever she goes.”

She may walk around school with her head held high, and a bright smile strewn across her face, but it wasn’t until the day Wallace performed her talent to become Homecoming Queen that students began to learn the truth.

The truth was written in a poem, and it told everyone who listened to it being read by her at lunch, that despite appearances, she hadn’t always been this happy. “My home life wasn’t the best,” she said, referring to her freshman and sophomore years. “My mom left and was on drugs and drinking.”

After that, Wallace felt like she was attending school for nothing. Freshman year she found herself failing English, even though she was fully capable of passing. She even admits, “it wasn’t that I couldn’t do it, I just didn’t want to.” And during sophomore year, she was enrolled in CAHSEE classes, although she said it was completely unnecessary.

Now, she is enrolled in some of the most challenging classes on campus, such as AP English.



Meanwhile, Wallace wasn’t the only one who struggled with her mom’s departure. Her dad became a single parent raising four children.

Wallace knew it was time to get her act together when she realized that her “dad was hurt the most, so I wanted to be less of a burden on him.” She recalls how her mother used to discourage them and tell them that they wouldn’t graduate just because she didn’t.

Instead, her mother discontinued school after getting pregnant with Wallace’s older sister, Tonae. She thought, “Because she didn’t do good… we wouldn’t make it.” But, this didn’t stop Wallace or her siblings from wanting to succeed.

Soon, Wallace will be attending Sacramento State. Her older sister graduated from this campus last year, her younger sister is involved in the leadership program at her middle school, and her younger brother is an all-star athlete.

Wallace’s siblings are a large part of her inspiration to prove her mother wrong, “I saw how my mom leaving was affecting them, and I thought, if I stop caring, they’ll do the same.” But Wallace also says that she doesn’t think she could’ve made it without her dad.

She knows he’s proud of her. As she says, “I’m the first to go to college… he gets teary eyed when I talk about leaving.” Overall, Wallace is proud to be able to say, “Look where I came from and look where I’m at.”

She believes that if she had stayed in Oakland, she’d probably be out in the streets. Not that she was raised that way, or that her father would ever allow it, but she says out there it’s easy to get tempted to behave badly. “I like it better out here. I got a whole lot of better opportunities and choices.”

In spite of everything, she has a positive outlook on what she’s been through. She says that if she could tell her mom anything, it would be that, “She raised me well… I have no harsh feelings towards her,” and she would thank her because “She taught me not to let nobody walk over us — not even her.”