Ramona High School senior Kathleen “Katie” Beals considers herself to be an “open book” and doesn’t think there is much about her that would surprise people.
The 2025 Salutatorian thinks most of her friends know about her love of running, her school activities and her desire to become a large-animal veterinarian.
Her 4.5 GPA helped earn her a spot in the University of California, Davis Honors program, which accepts only 200 students each year. Beals said she plans to begin classes in the fall.
“My plan is to explore animal science and veterinary options,” Beals said. She is also considering nursing program options.
She also plans to continue with one of her first loves while attending Davis — running.
Beals was captain of the cross country team this year, and has participated in both cross country and long distance (1600 meter and 3200 meter) running for the past four years.
“I finally broke 6 minutes in the mile, at 5:59,” she said.
“Running is my first love ever,” Beals said. “Cross country is the most important sport to me and I don’t think I’ll ever stop running.”
Her love of sports, including running, wrestling and water polo, helped her earn the Scholar Athlete Award, with 12 varsity letters, given as symbols of excellence.
“It’s one of my proudest accomplishments,” she said.
Beals’ math teacher, Garet Newells, said she was a strong student and a pleasure to have in class.
“She is never satisfied with simply learning ‘how’ to solve a problem. She is always the first student that wants to dig deeper, to understand the ‘why’ of a given concept,” Newells said.
Newells said she combines her natural curiosity with “impressively strong communication skills.”
“She routinely engages in effective mathematical discourse with her fellow classmates, helping everyone master some very advanced concepts in challenging courses like AP Calculus BC,” he said.
Beals was involved with the Student Senate her junior and senior years and was part of the Link Crew, an organization that helps freshmen assimilate to high school, as an upperclassman.
Newells praised Beals’ ability to “balance an extremely rigorous academic schedule with an extremely rigorous athletics schedule.”
Beals said she also helped her friends start a poetry club her senior year.
“I love poetry and wrote more than 600 poems in high school,” she said. They are often based on “whatever I’m feeling at the time.”
She said her poems and her family are a big part of her life outside the classroom.
The daughter of Keith and Denise Beals of Ramona, Katie,18, has three older siblings; Jason, 26; Kyle, 24 and Paige, 21. Paige was the Ramona High valedictorian in 2022.
“My siblings are everything to me,” said Beals, adding that Paige has influenced her the most. “She is the greatest role model I’ve ever had in my life and honestly, I’ve just basically followed her footsteps so closely.”
Not surprising for someone wanting to be a future veterinarian, the family pets include two cats, a dog and a tortoise.
Beals said if she continues to pursue large-animal work, she hopes to have her own mobile veterinary clinic. She is also considering working with wildlife or zoo animals.
What Beals thinks her friends might be surprised to learn, however, is that after college she hopes to open a chicken sanctuary.
She has two chickens, Floyd and Corrie, and she considers them “friends,”
“I’ve always bonded with chickens, since I got my first chicks when I was 6. They are my place of peace,” Beals said.
