By Jeff Miller
Special to The Texas Catholic
“I’m the kind of person where you stand on the shoulders of your ancestors,” Bishop Dunne Catholic School’s Gaby Gonzalez said the morning of her graduation two weeks ago. Of the dozens of relatives who preceded her at the high school during the past 60 years, no shoulders are broader than those of her paternal grandfather.
Albert Gonzalez was a member of Dunne’s Class of 1965, the first Falcon high school seniors to attend for all four years following the school’s founding in 1961.
“He’s my biggest inspiration,” Gonzalez, whose family attends St. Cecilia Catholic Church in Oak Cliff, said. “None of this would have been possible without him.”
For this year’s graduating Gonzalez, “this” refers to a high school experience that included being vice-president of the school’s National Honor Society chapter, president of both the mental awareness group and the Spanish Honor Society, a member of the science club, and an athlete participating in volleyball, basketball, soccer, softball, and track.
Asked to identify a particular highlight of her time at Bishop Dunne, she pointed to a trip to Orlando, Florida, during her junior year with Brad Baker’s acclaimed Geographic Information Systems program to attend a national Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence conference that included the presentation of a project on school safety.
“It reminded me that education can be fun,” Gonzalez said. “We ended up expanding the project this year a lot. It’s kind of heart-warming.”
Gonzalez’s parents, Albert and Teresa, graduated from Dunne during the 1980s.
Her grandfather went to work with his father and brother in the family business, Gonzalez Funeral Home on Stemmons Freeway in downtown Dallas. It is now run by Gonzalez’s father.
She said her grandfather “made me believe in myself.”
Gonzalez’s initial exposure to Bishop Dunne came as a third grader attending the elementary school at nearby St. Elizabeth of Hungary Catholic Church. Her music teacher brought the class over, and Gonzalez recalls playing the piano in the auditorium.
She said she initially was not sure she would enjoy attending a relatively small high school like Dunne.
“But it gives you more ability to do whatever,” she said. “You can dabble in this; and if you don’t like it, you can do this; and I just happened to like a lot of things. I just think there’s a lot more personal attention when you go to a smaller school.”
Gonzalez seeks a similar experience in college. She is headed for Trinity University in San Antonio after previously thinking she would enroll at a much larger school. She plans to double major in accounting and political science.
“I love math, want to stick with it, eventually get an MBA,” Gonzalez said. As for political science, “There’s something about the study of other people.
“If I don’t go to business school after, I’m going to go to law school.”
This goal certainly will make her relatives proud.
Cutline for featured image: Gaby Gonzalez, pictured May 23 at Bishop Dunne Catholic School, carries on a family tradition with her graduation from the Oak Cliff school. (MICHAEL GRESHAM/The Texas Catholic)
